L'Equipe reports that Bedoucha confessed to helping riders dope
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A French gendarme searches outside the window(Image credit: AFP)
The doping control van is hard to miss.(Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
Philippe Bedoucha, the former team doctor of French outfit BigMat-Auber 93, has been indicted for “the transfer and acquisition of doping products” according to a report on lequipe.fr on Thursday.
Under French law, the crime is punishable by a custodial sentence of up to seven years. Bedoucha has also been indicted for the operation of an illegal pharmacy.
Bedoucha was questioned by officers from the French Central Office against Environmental Damage and Public Health (OCLAESP), who have carried out a number of searches as part of an investigation which began in January 2010. The inquiry is focused on a period encompassing Bedoucha’s final three seasons at the team, from 2007 to 2010.
L’Équipe’s Damien Ressiot reports that Bedoucha confessed to OCLAESP officers that he had helped several BigMat riders to dope and that he had provided them with EPO during his spell with the team. Bedoucha left BigMat-Auber 93 at the end of 2010.
Public prosecutors in Créteil on the outskirts of Paris have requested that Bedoucha be placed on probation when he is released on bail. The Frenchman was taken into custody on Monday.
It is also reported that former masters mountain bike champion Jean-Philippe Tellier and cyclo-cross rider Geoffrey Clochez will be indicted on Thursday as part of the same investigation.
Ten riders, including seven professionals, have already been questioned as witnesses by investigators.
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