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Rumsas, wife and doctor handed suspended sentences
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Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas, who finished third in the 2002 Tour de France, was given a four-month suspended prison sentence by a court in the French Alpine village of Bonneville on Thursday.
Rumsas and his wife Edita were both convicted on charges of importing prohibited doping substances in connection with a case that began on the final day of the 2002 Tour.
Both Rumsas and his wife were given the same suspended sentences and fined 3000 euros ($3675), while Polish doctor Krzysztof Ficek was handed a 12-month suspended sentence for prescribing the drugs.
During the trial on November 23, state prosecutor Vincent Le Pannerer had asked that Ficek as the main culprit in the case be jailed for his role, with suspended sentences of eight months and four months respectively against Rumsas and his wife.
None of the three were present at Bonneville on Thursday to hear the sentencing.
As Rumsas rode into Paris to celebrate his third-place finish in the 2002 Tour de France, customs police stopped his wife and searched her car, discovering a trunk full of growth hormones, erythropoietin and other banned substances.
Rumsas, who despite suspicions proclaimed his innocence throughout the affair, was suspended by his Lampre team in May 2003 after failing a dope test for EPO during the Giro d’Italia.
While his wife faced repeated interrogation by police and customs officers as she was held in custody for more than two months in Bonneville in 2002, Rumsas returned to his native Lithuania where the public and the authorities gave him the benefit of the doubt and celebrated his third place finish on the race.
"In short, his wife faced up to the problem while her husband stole away. She has courage, he has been a coward," Le Pannerer said during the November trial.
In the witness box Edita Rumsas spoke through an interpreter for over two hours trying to explain the contradictions which accompanied each version of events over the seven times she has been questioned by the authorities.
The lawyer for the French cycling federation, who are civil witnesses in the trial, said Edita Rumsas's version of events was "pathetic."
"Even though she is doing everything possible to protect her husband Madame Rumsas is pathetic," said the lawyer Paul Mauriac.
Her husband Raimondas Rumsas, 33, refused at first to confirm his identity and during his 90-minute stay appeared to be bitter over the affair.
It was for this reason that the former cyclist - now unemployed - complained bitterly that he had been specifically targeted by Le Pannerer and that his career had been ruined as a result.
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