Former rider seeking to overturn suspended sentence
Appeals lodged by both Floyd Landis and the EdF company against the sentences handed down on November 10th against them will be heard in Versailles next November.
French newspaper L’Equipe reports today that the appeals will take place between November 7th and 9th.
Last November Landis was given a twelve months suspended prison sentence by a court in Nanterre, France. This related to the hacking of the WADA-accredited lab of Chatenay-Malabry near Paris in 2006.
The laboratory was the one which tested the samples from that year’s Tour de France. Landis won the race after a dramatic fightback, but subsequently tested positive and was disqualified.
He put up a vigorous defence against charges of drug use and information from the laboratory was used by him and his coach Arnie Baker to try to show that the science and procedures were flawed.
Prosecutors claimed that Landis and his coach Arnie Baker were involved in a plot to hack into the lab’s computer system.
Baker was accused of having asked the consulting firm Kargus Consultants to break into the computer systems and to gain access to private documents. The hacker Alain Quiros, the alleged intermediary Jean-Francois Dominguez, a former paratrooper, and Thierry Lorho, who used to be an agent with the spy agency DGSE, were also on trial.
Quiros admitted hacking into the lab and was given a six-month prison sentence plus a fine of €4,000. He was also convicted of hacking into the computers of the environmental lobby group Greenpeace, with the intrusion being done on behalf of employees of the French power company Electricité de France SA (EdF). The state-controlled power company was fined €1.5 million.
At the time, Landis denied the claims and said that the information was posted to him anonymously. He chose not to attend the trial. He was consequently tried in abstentia, which is forbidden in several countries including under the US Constitution, but permitted in France.
Landis and the EdF later appealed, and a new case relating to that will take place at the dates stipulated.
Landis competed professionally with a number of teams, including Mercury, the US Postal Service and Phonak. He returned to racing after his two year suspension ended but didn’t achieve the same success as before. He has since retired.
In May 2010 he made claims of widespread doping within the US Postal Service team, naming individuals such as Lance Armstrong of being involved. This led to a federal investigation which was suddenly and unexpectedly dropped by the United States Attorney Andre Birotte Jr on February 3rd.
The US Anti Doping Agency is continuing to look into the matter, and it is also believed that Landis is involved in a whistleblower case against Armstrong and others.