MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2020) � The Court of Arbitration for Sport in the Swiss city of Lausanne said Monday it had canceled all in-person hearings until at least May 1.
"CAS will not host any in-person hearing before 1 May 2020, at the earliest. Depending on the circumstances of each individual case, the arbitrators and parties are encouraged to conduct hearings by video-conference or to cancel them," it said.
This comes as Russia awaits the court's ruling on its appeal against the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision to ban Russian athletes from the Olympic Games for four years unless they are proven "clean" and participate as neutrals.
The ban will come into effect if it is upheld by CAS, which said in February it will hear the case behind closed doors no earlier than April. Russian sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said last week that the pandemic could push the hearing back to late May.
