Porto Court of Appeal orders retrial in W52-FC Porto doping case
The Porto Court of Appeal has ordered a retrial in the Clean Evidence process, deeming illegal the statements read by Nuno Ribeiro at the hearing.
Porto Court of Appeal annuls key evidence and orders new trial in cycling doping case
The Porto Court of Appeal (TRP) has ordered a retrial in the doping case of the defunct cycling team W52-FC Porto, and has also determined that the first instance judgment should be reformulated. According to observador.pt, the decision is based on the illegality of the statements made by former sporting director Nuno Ribeiro, who read a previously prepared document during the trial hearing.
The Court of Appeal ruling, dated Thursday, follows an interlocutory appeal filed by Adriano Quintanilha, the team owner, and by the Calvário Várzea Clube de Ciclismo Association — the club that originally founded the team — who argued that testimony given in such a manner was inadmissible.
"We hold it to be beyond question that statements made by reading from a document prepared in advance in circumstances and by a person unknown are inadmissible [at trial] and cannot be valued as such [evidence]", the Court of Appeal stated. The court added that the first instance court "not only admitted them but, based on them, determined the production of other evidence and, ultimately, valued them in order to establish as settled fact the criminal responsibility" of the defendants.
The convictions in question
On 12 December 2025, the Penafiel Court had convicted Adriano Quintanilha and Nuno Ribeiro to effective sentences of four years and nine months in the Clean Evidence process, which involves 26 defendants, including former cyclists. The first instance court concluded that Quintanilha was one of the "persons who devised the initial doping plan" within W52-FC Porto and that he had the final decision on payments for the doping substances and methods used.
Eleven former cyclists from the team — among them João Rodrigues, winner of the 2003 Volta a Portugal, Rui Vinhas, Ricardo Mestre, Samuel Caldeira and Daniel Mestre, among others — were convicted to suspended sentences of less than two and a half years for trafficking in banned substances and methods.
The testimony that prompted the annulment
The statements now deemed illegal were made by Nuno Ribeiro at the trial session on 18 November 2024. The then former sporting director asked to make a statement in the absence of the other defendants, claiming to be suffering "pressure and threats", particularly from Adriano Quintanilha.
Ribeiro read a written statement, lasting almost an hour, in which he admitted that there had been doping throughout the year in the team, financed and encouraged by Quintanilha, whom he described as a "master of manipulation, who wanted to win at all costs". He also stated that his only error had been knowing what was happening and not having the capacity to say no, due to economic dependence on the position he held, denying that he was the "brains" of the scheme.
Criticism of the Penafiel court by the Court of Appeal
The judge rapporteur from the Porto Court of Appeal was clear in her criticism of the first instance court, stating that it had accepted "uncritically" the reading of the document — "valuing it as statements, including to the detriment of co-defendants — without the slightest concern to clarify in what circumstances and by whom it had been prepared".
"The reading of a text of unknown authorship and prepared in advance in circumstances equally unknown does not satisfy the concept of statements, nor that of any other admissible evidence", the magistrate added, concluding that the Penafiel Court should have "rejected" Ribeiro's request from the outset.
Next steps
The Porto Court of Appeal has ordered the reopening of the trial hearing so that, if he so wishes, Nuno Ribeiro may give statements in a legal manner, without recourse to any document prepared in advance. The first instance court should then reformulate the judgment "in the segments deemed tainted and in those dependent on them, if necessary".
The convictions of four years and nine months for Quintanilha and Ribeiro thus remain suspended, depending on the outcome of the new trial and the reformulation to be produced by the Penafiel Court.
Source: Google News PT — Crime (pt)