American cyclist Floyd Landis, who was last seen riding for Michael Ball’s Rock Racing team, has been issued an international arrest warrant by a French judge for computer intrusion. The warrant pertains to his alleged involvement in hacking into the Labaratoire National de Dopistage du Dopage’s (LNDD) computer systems at Chatenay-Malabry.
The head of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), Pierre Bordry, told Reuters that “French judge Thomas Cassuto of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre (High Court of Nanterre) informed us that on January 28 they issued an international arrest warrant against Floyd Landis, who tested positive for testosterone in the Tour de France 2006, after our laboratory computer system was hacked.”
The warrant was issued after Landis failed to answer a summons in the matter last October.
Landis, 34, was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France overall victory following the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) rejection of his appeal arguing that his positive test for testosterone during the race was due to procedural mistakes by the French laboratory.
Bordry told AFP that Landis used documents “illegally hacked from the authority’s laboratory computer system” to mount his CAS defense. The judge intends to ask Landis “to explain how he came to obtain certain information that was used in his defence,” he added.
The accusation of computer hacking was introduced when the AFLD filed legal proceedings on November 7, 2006, when the agency became aware of the fact that documents belonging to them were used as a part of Landis’ defense. Arnie Baker, who worked with Landis on his defense, also was issued a warrant for his arrest. Sources close to the investigation say that electronic evidence in the case led to a computer belonging to Baker.
Landis denied the hacking allegation in n an e-mail to the Los Angles Times on Monday, also confirming that he had not been served a warrant: “I can’t speak for Arnie,” the e-mail said, “but no attempt has been made to formally contact me. It appears to be another case of fabricated evidence by a French lab who is still upset a United States citizen believed he should have the right to face his accusers and defend himself.”