MARSEILLE: French prosecutors on Monday requested a one-year suspended prison sentence against a Colombian doctor accused of helping brothers Nairo and Dayer Quintana dope during the 2020 Tour de France.
Doctor Fredy Gonzales Torres is alleged to have helped Colombian riders Nairo Quintana, 35, a former Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana winner and three-time Tour de France podium finisher, and his 32-year-old brother Dayer take prohibited substances while riding for the Arkéa-Samsic team.
Equipment and medication were seized, notably in the room of Doctor Gonzales, during searches of hotels occupied by the French team during the Tour de France in 2020.
The Colombian doctor faces charges of “possession of a substance or method prohibited for use by an athlete without medical justification, in this case equipment, tools, products and devices for carrying out intravenous infusions and/or injections”, as well as for having administered them “without medical justification” to the Quintana brothers.
Prosecutors requested “a one-year suspended prison sentence, a 5,000 euro ($5,248) fine and a five-year ban on any activity related to a sporting body”.
The defendant’s lawyer Mohamed El Yousfi insisted that “no doping product” had “ever been seized” in this case and called for an acquittal. The defendant was not present in court on Monday.
The judgement was adjourned until April 2.
In 2022, Nairo Quintana was disqualified from the Tour de France, where he had finished sixth, after traces of Tramadol, a prohibited painkiller, were found in his blood.
