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Operation Puerto doctor jailed

Madrid - Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the main accused in Spain's biggest doping scandal, was on Tuesday sentenced to one year in prison and barred for four years from exercising the medical profession.

More than 50 cyclists had come under suspicion in the so-called Operation Puerto, in which some 200 blood bags were found in May 2006 police raids.

Prosecutors had called for a prison sentence of two and a half years to cleanse the reputation of Spanish sports, even if Fuentes was not charged with doping.

The Madrid court only found him guilty of an offence against public health. Doping did not become a crime in Spain until 2007, after the offences were committed.

Cycling official Jose Ignacio Labarta (Comunidad Valenciana) was handed four months in prison. The three other accused were acquitted.
 
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