Paris (AFP)
A Parisian examining magistrate has ordered a new trial against Bernard Sainz, nicknamed the "doctor Mabuse" of cycling, who had been filmed on a hidden camera while providing doping advice, we learned Thursday from concordant sources.
Bernard Sainz, 76, was referred to the criminal court for "illegal practice of medicine in a state of legal recidivism", in an order dated February 12, told AFP a judicial source confirming information from the Team.
He will also be tried for "illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist" and "assistance and incitement to the use of substance or method prohibited by athletes in the context of a sporting event in a state of legal recidivism".
The investigating magistrate ordered that he be kept under judicial supervision until his trial, said Bernard Sainz's lawyer, Me Hector Bernardini, in a press release.
In a report from the Cash Investigation program produced in collaboration with Le Monde and broadcast in June 2016, Bernard Sainz had been filmed with a hidden camera giving doping protocols to cyclists, in particular EPO, corticosteroids and clenbuterol.
"Bernard Sainz's competence in alternative medicine cannot lead to sports doping," said in his statement Me Bernardini, saying "to be impatient that the trial begins to shed light on the benefits of the nutritional principles" of his client.
He also deplored that the investigating judge, "focused on a working hypothesis", had "not once in two years (...) acquiesced in a request for an act requested by the defense", nor "released a judicial review to a 75 year old gentleman".
The lawyer also accused him of having "done everything" to keep his client "in pretrial detention as long as possible", even attempting "to go beyond the legal maximum incurred".
Former sports director converted into care, Bernard Sainz has already been sentenced on appeal to Caen 12 months suspended prison sentence and 2,000 euros fine in February 2019, in another doping case in the world of amateur and semi-professional cycling . He has been cited in several other cases, which have earned him the nickname "Doctor Mabuse".
Amateur cyclist in the 1960s, Sainz became known by becoming deputy sporting director of a leading professional team (Fagor-Mercier then Gan-Mercier), whose stars were the legendary Raymond Poulidor or Cyrille Guimard.
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