American Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his victory in the 2006 Tour de France for doping, and his coach Arnie Baker have been ordered to stand trial in France for computer hacking.
Landis and Baker are subject to an international arrest warrant and stand charged of “fraudulently breaking into a computer system”, according to lawyer Frederik-Karel Canoy, who is acting on the behalf of the Vivendi media company.
Both Landis and Baker are suspected of illegally obtaining documentation from the French Anti-Doping Laboratory (LNDD) in a bid to contest the American rider’s positive test results from stage 16 of the 2006 Tour de France.
Landis spent four years, and millions of dollars, in a bid to prove he never cheated to win the world’s biggest bike race.
Earlier this year he finally confessed, though in explosive fashion — alleging that he and many other former teammates, including Lance Armstrong, had systematically doped for years.
The French state prosecutor had initially ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge Landis with hacking. However, that decision was overruled by the “Tribunal Correctionnel” in Nanterre just outside Paris.
A Tribunal Correctionnel is a criminal court that usually handles serious cases. — Sapa-AFP