David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir) (Image credit: AFP)
David Millar received an indication today that he will be treated with leniency by the French court, where he is on trial with nine others for violating French anti-doping laws. The public prosecutor for the case, Jacques Hossaert, dropped demands that Millar and his former director sportif Boguslaw Madejak face prison time.
Millar could have faced a three month to year-long suspended sentence if he is found guilty of possession of doping products. Madejak, 51, has already served six months on remand and will not face additional time if the jury decides to accept the recommendations.
Hossaert said that Miller had "brought some very interesting elements to the discussion" and indicated that there were questions as to the exact country where Millar's possessed the drugs, in France or in Spain, according to AFP.
The pharmacist who is accused of supplying EPO to athletes, Pierre Ben Yamin, was not treated so kindly. Hossaert recommended a fine of 3,000 euros and six months to a year suspended sentence for Yamin.
Millar, who returned to the peloton for this year's Tour de France after serving a two-year ban for admitting EPO use, told the court that he took the performance enhancing drugs EPO and testosterone "because it was my job to get good results."
The trial stems from the 2004 'Cofidis affair', during which Millar admitted to taking EPO, and was stripped of his world time trial championship from 2003. Also on trial are Italian Massimiliano Lelli, Frenchmen Philippe Gaumont, Robert Sassone, Médéric Clain, Poles Marek Rutkiewicz and Daniel Majewski and director sportif Oleg Kozlitine.
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