Kashechkin case not a public affair

The professional cycling teams associations (the AIGCP and the IPCT) are of the opinion that the fight against doping should not be fought using public prosecution. This was clarified by the duo's lawyer, Jean-Louise Dupont, who announced that the AIGCP and the IPCT have served a request to the court in Liège, Belgium. The AIGCP and the IPCT have resultantly placed themselves in the middle of the affair between the Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin and the UCI. Both associations want to clarify their standpoint and be involved in the case.

"Kashechkin's attorney [Luc Misson], finds that the fight against doping and the controls should only be fought using the public system and not that of a private institution," Dupont clarified.

The rider's organizations believe that the fight against doping should not be decided by only public powers. "The question is not if the fight should be undertaken by the state, a private institution – like the UCI or WADA – or the teams themselves, but rather if the rules and the sanctions are objective and well proportioned."

Dupont believes that the AIGCP, the IPCT and the cycling teams should be allowed to wager in on the debate. "Trust and honesty in the fight against doping is for professional cycling a question of life and death," he said.

The Kashechkin affair is due before the courts on November six in Liège and Misson has based his defence on Article 8 of the Convention of Human Rights, which states that an infringement on the private life may only be dealt with through the public court. Misson believes that each blood sample taken, even within competition, is an infringement of a rider's private life. The control that has lead to the positive test of the former Astana rider on August 1 in a Turkish hotel, where he was on holidays, is an example of this infringement, according to Misson.