Related case:
Spanish Criminal Court 52_2012 RFEC, WADA, UCI & CONI vs Eufemiano Claudio Fuentes Rodríguez, José Ignacio Labarta Barrera, Manuel Saiz Balbás, Yolanda Fuentes Rodríguez & Vicente Belda Vicedo
April 29, 2013
Audiencia Provincial de Madrid Sentencian Nº 302/2016
Sección Primera
Magistrados:
- Alejandro Benito López
- Manuel Chacón Alonso
- Elena Perales Guilló
Procedimiento abreviado nº 52/2012
Juzgado de lo Penal nº 21 de Madrid
Rollo de Sala nº 319/2013
En Madrid, a diez de junio de dos mil dieciséis.
Vistos en segunda instancia los recursos de apelación contra la sentencia de 29 de abril de 2013 del Juzgado de lo Penal nº 21 de Madrid en el procedimiento abreviado nº 52/2012, seguido contra:
- don Eufemiano Claudio Fuentes Rodríguez,
- don José Ignacio Labarta Barrera,
- don Manuel Saiz Balbás,
- doña Yolanda Fuentes Rodríguez y
- don Vicente Belda Vicedo.
In the doping case Operacion Puerto the Guardia Civil arrested on 22 May 2016 the Spanish sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes together with four other accomplices. In Fuentes' clinic, home and office in Madrid, 186 blood bags were found belonging to professional athletes and marked with coded names, besides EPO, steroids, and growth hormone.
In January 2013 the Operacion Puerto trial was conducted against Fuentes and accomplices under Spanish criminal law covering the illicit administration of medication, and not under the anti-doping legislation that exists in Spain today but did not exist back in 2006. On the 29 April 2013 Fuentes was found guilty and given a 1 year suspended prison sentence.
In the Puerto trial (case 52/2012) the Spanish judge also ruled on a request from RFEC, WADA, UCI and CONI to hand over blood bags to the Spanish anti-doping agency. However the judge ordered on 29 April 2013 to destroy the blood bags, but the anti-doping agency appealed this decision.
Hereafter additional appeals where filed by the RFEC, WADA, UCI and CONI, as well as by the prosecution against sentence 52/2012 of 29 April 2013.
On 10 June 2016 the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid ruled that 211 blood bags collected during the Operación Puerto doping investigation should be hand over to anti-doping authorities in Italy, as well as the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Spanish Court also absolved of guilt dr. Fuentes, who in 2013 was found by the Spanish court to have doped cyclists and handed a suspended jail sentence, with the new sentence his actions did not constitute a crime under Spanish law.
In April 2013, Spanish judge Santamaria found that Fuentes' use of blood-doping methods was illegal, although she decided that Spanish privacy laws prohibited the passing on of evidence to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), International Cycling Union (UCI) or Spanish Anti-Doping Agency (AEA) for further investigation or identification of individuals.
The Spanish judge Alejandro Maria Benito of the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid reversed on 10 June 2016 both decisions, and decided that evidence collected during a police investigation that dates back to 2006, and currently stored in Barcelona, can be investigated at again.
