Sheikh Ahmad was one of five people charged in November by Swiss prosecutors of creating fake videos to prove two Kuwaiti Government officials were guilty of coup-plotting and corruption.

Lawyers for the Sheikh have confirmed he will attend the hearing listed by a criminal court in Geneva to run from February 22 until 26, Associated Press reported.

Sheikh Ahmad has always denied the allegations but temporarily stood down as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and as President of ANOC pending the outcome of the case.

The 57-year-old, a former secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is one of the IOC’s longest-serving members having been appointed in 1992 and has been one of the most influential powerbrokers in world sport for more than two decades.

He is widely credited with having helped Thomas Bach become President of the IOC and Tokyo win its bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In December 2013, allies of Sheikh Ahmad claimed to possess tapes purportedly showing that former Prime Minister Nasser Al-Mohammed and ex-Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi were discussing plans to topple the Kuwaiti Government.

In December 2015, Sheikh Ahmad was convicted of "disrespect to the public prosecutor and attributing a remark to the country’s ruler without a special permission from the Emir’s court," issuing a suspended six-month prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinar (£2,386/$3,305/€2,727).

In January 2016, however, the Kuwaiti appeals court overturned the prior ruling and cleared Sheikh Ahmad of all charges.

Sheikh Ahmad has claimed Al-Mohammed filed a criminal complaint against him in Switzerland in a bid to blacken his name.

"The whole matter is based on allegations that are maliciously motivated by political factions within Kuwait since 2012," a representative for Sheikh Ahmad said in 2018.

"He is absolutely determined to obtain a full acquittal and is confident about the positive outcome of the case," Geneva legal firm RVMH said today in a statement sent to Associated Press. 

It is unclear when the panel of three judges could give a verdict at the end of the five-day trial at the Tribunal Correctionnel in which, if they found Sheikh Ahmad guilty, they could impose a prison term of up to ten years.

The IOC said its Ethics Commission "continues to monitor developments in the case and in particular the decision that may be taken by the Geneva judicial authorities."

Despite stepping down from his other roles, Sheikh Ahmad has remained President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which his father founded in 1982, and if he is cleared by the court in Geneva it could mark a return to front-line sports politics.

In April 2017, Sheikh Ahmad resigned from the FIFA Council after being implicated in a US Federal Court by a member of the FIFA Audit Committee from Guam, Richard Lai, who admitted to taking $950,000 (£685,000/€783,000) in bribes that he alleged were from the OCA.

Sheikh Ahmad has "vigorously" denied any wrongdoing and the US authorities have never followed up the case.