'Tour' scandal verdicts

Senior figures in the Festina cycling team have been found guilty of organising illegal drug-taking during the 1998 Tour de France.

A court in Lille in northern France fined Festina's former coach, Bruno Roussel, and its masseur, Willy Voet and gave them suspended prison sentences, of a year and ten months respectively.

But the team's leading rider at the time, Richard Virenque, was acquitted of charges that he'd supplied drugs to his team-mates. However, Virenque still faces a possible ban from the sport in a separate ruling next week. The Festina scandal severely damaged cycling's image and nearly brought the 1998 Tour to a halt.

The BBC Paris correspondent says many in France will feel the sentences weren't harsh enough and that the court should have given a stronger signal that doping is unacceptable.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service