Court declines State's request to detain suspect in doping saga
Athletes protest outside Athletics Kenya offices at Riadha house on November 23, 2015. Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku released a man suspected to be involved in doping on a cash bail of Sh50,000. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
On Thursday, the State Prosecutor asked the court to detain Mr Talei — a clinical officer working at St Luke’s Orthopaedic and Trauma Hospital in Eldoret.
A magistrate has refused to grant the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions' (DPP) request to have an Eldoret based clinical officer detained for seven days to allow for further investigations to establish his involvement in doping.
Instead, Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku released Mr Samson Kiprotich Talei on a cash bail of Sh50,000 and directed him to appear in court on July 18, along with an international athletics coach, Claudio Berardelli.
Ms Mutuku was informed by a defence lawyer that all doping related cases have been fixed for mention with a view to giving further directions before Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo.
On Thursday, State Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu asked the court to detain Mr Talei — a clinical officer working at St Luke’s Orthopaedic and Trauma Hospital in Eldoret.
“I urge this court to detain the suspect for seven days to assist police get to the bottom of this doping issues, which threaten to lock Kenya out of the Rio De Janeiro Olympic games,” he urged.
But Mr Talei opposed the plea arguing he should be freed on bail since the State has not stated how he will interfere with the investigations which were said to be elaborate.
In her ruling Ms Mutuku dismissed the request to detain the medical officer. She said: “No compelling reasons were advanced by the prosecution to warrant the court to detain Mr Talei for further investigations.”
On Tuesday, Mr Ogembo ordered Mr Berardelli - a 36 year old Italian who has been coaching athletes for 11 years - to deposit a cash bail of Sh200,000 pending investigation to establish whether he is linked to any doping allegations.
The State Prosecutor had asked Mr Ogembo to detain Mr Berardelli for 10 days but his attorney Julius Kemboy opposed saying “Kenya has become a laughing stock to allege the international coach was involved in doping yet he has offered his youth and finances to produce international athletes, who trot the world winning medals for this great athletic nation.”
Editing by Philip Momanyi
