Kimmage battles the gradient in his RMO days; now he’s taken on McQuaid and Verbruggen
Paul Kimmage is not sitting back now that the UCI and its current and former presidents Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen have suspended their libel case against him.
Instead the former professional rider turn journalist, author and anti doping campaigner has launched some legal actions of his own.
In a statement issued today on Kimmage’s behalf by his Swiss-based lawyer, the Dubliner has revealed he has now made a complaint to the Swiss prosecutors’ offices with a view to commencing criminal probes into McQuaid and Verbruggen.
He has lodged a formal complaint saying both men should be investigated for “slander/defamation, denigration” arising from the way they spoke about him when they were suing him.
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He alleges he was “called a liar in public and accused in public of committing offences against the honour…. of the highest officials of the International Cycling Union (UCI)”.
In relation to Verbruggen, he has gone much further and lodged a more serious criminal complaint.
He alleges that Verbruggen “directly or indirectly” granted assistance to Lance Armstrong in the American’s gaining of significant sums of money both in and out of competition while he was taking drugs.
A fund was set up to help Kimmage fight the UCI/McQuaid/Verbruggen case against him. More than 2,000 people have donated and it has attracted almost $90,000.
However, the UCI announced last week that the case – which had been due for hearing in Switzerland in December – was being suspended pending the findings of an independent commission to be set up by the UCI to examine its role in relation to Lance Armstrong’s drug taking.
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Many believe that case will now never go ahead and Kimmage has effectively turned his defensive fund into an offensive one.
According to the statement issued by his lawyer Cédric Aguet, Kimmage’s complaint in relation to McQuaid and Verbruggen runs to 28 pages and contains 55 “exhibits”.
Stay tuned folks because this one is going to run and run. In the meantime, here’s the full text of the statement released by Kimmage’s lawyer today.
Lausanne: Nov 1st, 2012
By this release, the undersigned makes the public announcement that his client Paul Kimmage has sent today to the Public Prosecutor of Vevey a criminal complaint and denunciation against Hein Verbruggen, Pat McQuaid and unknown persons against whom Paul Kimmage requests the opening of a criminal investigation for slander/defamation, denigration and for strong suspicions of fraud.
By this 28 page document to which 55 exhibits are attached, Paul Kimmage complains, among other things, that he was dragged through the mud, that he was called a liar in public and accused in public of committing offences against the honour after he had obtained the publication of an interview by Floyd Landis in which the latter denounced the conduct of the highest officials of the International Cycling Union (UCI).
In addition, Paul Kimmage informs the Swiss criminal authorities of the strong suspicions which weigh on at least Hein Verbruggen to have granted, directly or indirectly, the essential assistance which allowed Lance Armstrong to gain significant sums of money in and out of competition while he was doped.
Paul Kimmage has initiated these criminal proceedings not for himself but first of all in honour of the whistle-blowers – Stephen Swart, Frankie Andreu, Floyd Landis, Christophe Bassons, Nicolas Aubier, Giles Delion, Graham Obree and the many others – who were brave enough to speak but were dismissed as ‘liars’, ‘cowards,’ or ‘scumbags’ by Hein Verbruggen and/or Pat McQuaid.
Cédric Aguet
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