Paris (AFP)

Bernard Sainz is not done with justice: the one who is nicknamed the "Doctor Mabuse" of cycling will appear again in correctional after having been filmed in 2016 on a hidden camera giving doping advice, which he denies.

In an order dated February 12, an investigative judge of the public health pole of the Paris court ordered a new trial against the 76-year-old practitioner, previously convicted in other cases, said a judicial source, confirming information from the Team.

He will be tried for "illegal practice of medicine in a state of legal recidivism", "illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist" and "aid and incitement to the use of substance or method prohibited by athletes in the context of an event sportswoman in a state of legal recidivism ".

Until then, it will be kept under judicial supervision, said Bernard Sainz's lawyer, Me Hector Bernardini, in a press release. The latter deplored that the investigating judge had "not once in two years (...) acquiesced in a request for an act requested by the defense", nor "granted a release from judicial review to a gentleman " about his age.

In June 2016, Elise Lucet's Cash Investigation program, in collaboration with Le Monde, revealed that far from being away from bikes, Sainz continued to give advice to those who asked for it.

So we could see the former sports director seated at a Parisian brasserie disclose his prescriptions to a runner via coded language, "vitamin D" for the corticosteroid "diprostene" (prohibited in competition), or the therapeutic plant "chelidonium" for say "clenbuterol", a powerful anabolic agent. In another passage, he also advised taking EPO, before setting rates, depending on the gains won.

- Complaint filed -

For Me Bernardini, this report is "slanderous" and makes "pass Bernard Sainz for a charlatan". "What it has never been and what we will demonstrate," said the lawyer, promising to "call more than twenty witnesses at the hearing to demonstrate the merits of Bernard Sainz's recommendations regarding natural health ".

The complaint for "aggravated scam, association of criminals, attack on privacy and image rights" and "violation of the secrecy of digital correspondence", which he had filed in October against journalists who carried out the report, however, was closed, confirmed Me Bernardini, ensuring however not to have said his "last word".

Former amateur runner, present in the cycling world since he joined the Gan Mercier team as assistant sport director, where the stars were called Raymond Poulidor and Cyrille Guimard, Bernard Sainz has long maintained the reputation of a guru - hence his nickname - constantly flirting with limits but taking advantage of his good relationships in the peloton.

On his site, he highlights the care he has lavished on Poulidor, Guimard, and Bernard Thévenet, double winner of the Tour de France (1975, 1977). Later, he also rubbed shoulders with Frenchman Philippe Gaumont, convicted of doping and died at 40 after a cardiac accident, or Frank Vandenbroucke, the terrible child of Belgian cycling, who died at 34 after a career marked by doping cases and drugs.

Also present in the horse racing world, Sainz is not in its first legal troubles.

After several trials, he was sentenced in 2014 on appeal to Paris to two years in prison, including twenty months suspended, notably for incitement to doping and illegal practice of medicine, in a case that had splashed the cycling scene in the 90s .

More recently, the Caen Court of Appeal imposed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and 2,000 euros fine on February 27, 2019, in another case in the semi-professional and amateur milieu. Direct witnesses and a series of indirect witnesses, all cyclists, accused him of having dictated protocols for taking EPO, growth hormones and testosterone, between July 2008 and November 2010.

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