Four-time Russian sprint champion and winner of the European Athletics Team Championship Alexander Hutte, who was disqualified for doping four years ago, was allegedly detained on September 21 in the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg on suspicion of drug possession.
Information about this became known on September 23rd.
According to the REN TV channel, police officers stopped a 32-year-old ex-athlete in an inadequate state to check his documents.
It is noted that he allegedly could not clearly pronounce the words, and the reaction of his pupils indicated signs of drug intoxication.
Media reports that Alexander was taken to the department for further proceedings.
There, during a search, a bag of powder, presumably mephedrone, was found on him, which he was hiding in a sneaker.
It is clarified that the amount of the prohibited powder was 1.8 grams.
Now the sprinter may face imprisonment for up to three years under the article "Illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues."
Later, the detainee, according to media reports, confessed to using drugs, although he stressed that he did not do it systematically.
According to him, he purchased the contents of the packet from a man named Yaroslav via Telegram, and he sent him the location of the goods.
According to Fontanka, Hutte refused to undergo a medical examination, after which he was released on recognizance not to leave.
A criminal case was allegedly initiated into the incident.
However, the likelihood that the ex-athlete will end up in prison is not too high.
According to lawyer Andrei Knyazev, for possession of drugs, depending on the amount of the substance, it is provided for from three to five years in custody, but it is likely that the punishment for the athlete will be conditional, since he was caught by the police for the first time and confessed to using it.
The parents of the former athlete were shocked by what happened.
According to the mother of the detainee, the four-time champion of the country loved to drink, which made his family worried, but did not imagine how far he could go.
“We still can't come to our senses.
He graduated with sports in 2014.
Then everything.
Although he was invited to perform at an amateur level even now ... We ourselves even went, took him to drugs to check, you never know what.
We were told it was clean.
It's just creepy.
Today we did not sleep all night, we talked with Sasha.
But he won't say much to his parents, ”Hütte's mother explained.
The arrest of the sprinter was unexpected for the ex-head of the All-Russian Athletics Federation Valentin Balakhnichev, who was very upset by what had happened.
“I had a different opinion about Hutte ... Of course, if everything is confirmed, then he should be removed from the sport for life!
In this case, he affects not only himself, but also those to whom he offered these substances.
This is a big factor of responsibility ", - quotes Balakhnichev" Sport-Express "
ARAF press attaché Alla Glushchenko said that after the athlete was disqualified, he was excluded from the lists of the national team, and it is not known about his further fate of the organization.
“He is an adult and must be responsible for his own actions.
If he committed a crime, then he must be punished for this, provided for by our legislation.
ARAF still adheres to the principle of zero tolerance for doping and considers the violation of anti-doping rules to be absolutely unacceptable in any way, regardless of regalia and merit, "Glushchenko Gazeta.ru quoted as saying.
State Duma Deputy Dmitry Svishchev, in turn, stressed that athletes should be examples for society, and according to the history of Hutte's career, it is quite possible to make films with a bad ending.
“I started with doping, then drugs.
The track is over.
Fortunately, these are isolated cases.
99.9% of our athletes have never used illegal drugs in their lives and do not plan to do so.
We must look positively at this whole story with athletes and not put Alexander on a par with them.
Again, I am for tougher punishment for everything related to drug trafficking, ”Svishchev said.
This is not the first scandal involving the winner of the European Team Championship, in which any illegal substances are involved.
From 2015 to 2019, he was serving a doping suspension and doping test evasion.
At the same time, in April 2017, Hutte became an informant for the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics).
Then, pictures of correspondence with the manager of the anti-doping organization, Thomas Capdevilla, appeared on the network, in which he pointed out that coach Zukhra Vereshchagin was to blame for his positive test, and also tried to convict his national team partners of doping and drugs.
Moreover, Hutte himself confirmed the fact of the correspondence, although he said that some of the details in it were presented in a different light.
However, this did not help the sprinter in any way, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the same year confirmed his suspension.