Kyrö interview casts doubt on 1998 doping libel case

Former ski coach speaks openly to prosecutor

Jarmo Rautakoski

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The State Prosecutor says that Tuesday’s interview of Kari-Pekka Kyrö, former head coach of the Finnish Ski Association, corroborated suspicions that the Finnish News Agency (STT) would have been falsely convicted of libel over its 1998 allegations of widespread sports doping among Finnish skiers.
      The Office of the Prosecutor-General is trying to ascertain if it should ask the Supreme Court to overturn the conviction.
      “Kyrö spoke long and broadly about almost everything possible”, said State Prosecutor Jarmo Rautakoski after Tuesday’s questioning.
      “Kyrö certainly knows much about things, but his word alone will not be sufficient for nullifying the conviction.”
     
The Prosecutor-General’s office first considered asking for the conviction to be overturned already in 2004, when Kyrö was convicted of attempted fraud, because he had been found to have applied for damages on false pretenses.
      The Prosecutor-General’s office plans to ask investigators of Kyrö’s doping case of 2004 and the even older STT case to listen to Tuesday’s interview tape.
      “The idea is that on the basis of Kyrö’s story, it might be possible to find more evidence to back up his version of events.”
     
Rautakoski believes that Kyrö can no longer be prosecuted for lying in connection with the STT doping trial, because he has already been convicted of it.
      The possibly unfounded demands for damages of other important figures in the Ski Association could also have become obsolete as crimes.
      “However, if people other than Kyrö have been lying in court, then it will undoubtedly be of great interest to STT, as it would be able to demand the repayment of monetary damages that it was ordered to pay."
     
The Helsinki Court of Appeal ordered STT’s then editor-in-chief and an STT staff journalist to pay damages of about EUR 35,000 to skier Jari Räsänen and four key figures in the Finnish Ski Association for mental suffering.
      The appeal court ruling from October 2000 substantially reduced the original claims and the judgement of the lower court from July 1999.
      The editor-in-chief and the journalist had both received suspended sentences that were reduced to fines on appeal.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Former ski coach Kyrö reported to be source in TV news story on doping (21.5.2008)
  Kyrö at doping scandal trial: trip to Netherlands was for information, not hormones (16.6.2004)
  Finnish Ski Association on doping claims: skiers were offered baking powder (2.5.2008)
  TV channel Nelonen: Finnish Ski Association covered up widespread doping in 1990s (23.4.2008)
  Sports doping case: Skiing Federation doctors suspected use of EPO hormone (17.6.2004)

See also:
  Appeals Court reduces sentences in STT doping libel case (31.10.2000)

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