W52-FC Porto: verdict reading for “Prova Limpa” operation postponed | OneFootball

The reading of the judgment in the 'Prova Limpa' case, involving 26 defendants – among them former cyclists from W52 Quintanilha – was postponed this Tuesday.

The postponement occurred due to the change in the legal qualification of the crimes: the potential penalty of banning activities applied to the Calvário and Várzea Association – Cycling Club must be publicized, as indicated during the hearing by the presiding judge.

In light of this requalification, the association's defense spoke, announced its intention to appeal, and requested time to present the respective challenge. The reading of the judgment was rescheduled for December 12, at 2:00 PM.

In May, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) requested suspended sentences for the defendants, conditioned on compensation to the Portuguese Cycling Federation (FPC), arguing that "all the facts and all the crimes" listed in the accusation were proven.

On April 24, 2022, during the O Jogo Grand Prix, the Judicial Police conducted "several dozen home and non-home searches in various regions of the national territory," involving about 120 officers and focusing mainly on the residences of cyclists and leaders of W52-FC Porto.

In the 'Prova Limpa' operation, hundreds of syringes and needles of various types, transfusion material or bags with blood traces, as well as doping substances such as betamethasone, somatropin, menotropin, TB 500, insulin, and Aicar, among others, were seized.

Of the 26 defendants, all are charged with trafficking prohibited substances and methods, while only 14 are accused of administering prohibited substances and methods.

Among the defendants are Adriano Teixeira de Sousa, known as Adriano Quintanilha, the Calvário Várzea Cycling Club Association – the club behind the team – the then sports director Nuno Ribeiro and his 'assistant' José Rodrigues.

In the closing arguments of the trial, which began in February 2024, the prosecutor attributed different degrees of responsibility and considered Quintanilha, Ribeiro, and Hugo Veloso, the team's accountant, as "the main masterminds and responsible" for the doping scheme at W52-FC Porto.

In court, the former sports director and the team leader presented contradictory versions: Ribeiro admitted the existence of doping, claiming it was financed and encouraged by Adriano Quintanilha, "a master of manipulation, who wanted to win at all costs."

The winner of the 2003 Tour of Portugal declared that Quintanilha financed the doping, giving money to cyclists to buy illicit products, an accusation that the owner of W52-FC Porto denied.

The prosecutor acknowledged the difficulty in quantifying the penalties to be applied – among the defendants are pharmacists who, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, 'supplied' the doping substances – and argued that, despite the seriousness, as they are first-time offenders, they should not serve an effective sentence.

Former cyclists such as João Rodrigues, Rui Vinhas, Ricardo Mestre, Samuel Caldeira, Daniel Mestre, José Neves, Ricardo Vilela, Joni Brandão, José Gonçalves, and Jorge Magalhães, as well as Daniel Freitas, who represented the team between 2016 and 2018, are on trial for trafficking prohibited substances and methods.

W52-FC Porto was the main team in the national peloton, consecutively winning the Tour of Portugal between 2016 and 2021. However, the 2017 and 2018 editions, won by Raúl Alarcón, and the 2021 edition, won by Amaro Antunes, were later left without a winner due to doping suspensions imposed on the two former cyclists for anomalies in their biological passports.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.