Legal Regime For The Fight Against Doping in Sport in Cape Verde

Law n.º 98/IX/2020 of 29 July, established the legal regime for the fight against doping in sport in Cape Verde.

Therefore, doping is prohibited to all sports practitioners inside and outside the sports competitions organized in the national territory.

The following are considered anti-doping rule violations, among others:

• The presence of a prohibited substance, its metabolites or markers, in a sample collected from an athlete;
• Use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or prohibited method by an athlete;
• Evasion of sample collection, or refusal without valid justification or a failure to submit to sample collection after notification, in accordance with current anti-doping regulations;
• Failure to report the athlete’s location information, in the sense that any combination of three failed analyzes and/or failure to report location data as defined in the International Standard for Control and Investigations, within a period of twelve months for a sports practitioner belonging to a target group;
• The manipulation or attempted manipulation of any element of doping control, that is, conduct that subverts the doping control process, but which could not otherwise fall within the typical definition of Prohibited Methods;
• Possession of a prohibited substance or prohibited method;
• The trafficking or attempted trafficking of any prohibited substance or prohibited method;
• The administration, or attempted administration of, a prohibited substance or prohibited method to any athlete, or the administration or attempted administration to any athlete out-of-competition of any prohibited substance or prohibited method that is prohibited out-of-competition;
• Complicity, which is the support, incitement, contribution, investigation, concealment, conspiracy, cover-up or any other type of intentional complicity, involving a violation of an anti-doping rule or any other attempted violation;
• Prohibited association, which means the association of a sports practitioner or other person subject to the authority of an anti-doping organization as a professional or in any other capacity related to sports activity with any support person for the sports practitioner.

Athletes are liable for any prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers found in their organic samples, as well as for the use of any prohibited method.

Doping control

Sports practitioners, as well as all those who are covered by the doping ban, who participate in official sports competitions, regardless of their nationality, are obliged to submit to doping control.

The above applies to out-of-competition controls, namely with regard to sports practitioners who are in a high competition regime, and the respective control actions must be carried out without prior notice.

In the case of minors, at the time of registration, the sports federation must require the respective authorization from those who exercise parental authority or who have guardianship over them, the authorization for their subjection to in-competition and out-of-competition doping controls.

Control actions

The carrying out of control actions in Cape Verde is the exclusive responsibility of the National Anti-Doping Organization of CV (ONAD-CV), with the exception of International Federations and major international sporting events.

Preventive suspension of the sports practitioner

When a positive case notification is received for a prohibited substance or a prohibited method, preventive suspension is applied.

Sanctioning regime

The statute of limitations for criminal proceedings is governed by the provisions of the Penal Code.

Trafficking in prohibited substances and methods is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years.

The administration of prohibited substances and methods is also punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years, unless there is an authorization for therapeutic use.

Anyone who promotes, founds, participates in or supports a group, organization or association, whose purpose or activity is the practice of a crime provided for in the legal regime of the fight against doping in sport in Cape Verde is punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 5 months. years old.

Legal persons and equivalent persons are criminally liable.

Since the denouncement is mandatory, by officials of the sports federations, associations and groupings of clubs affiliated to them, they must transmit to the Public Prosecutor’s Office news of the crimes of which they are aware in the exercise of their functions and for accusing them.

Misdemeanours

Constitutes very serious misdemeanours punishable by a fine between 100,000$00 and 600,000$00:

1. Obstruction, unjustified delay, concealment and other conducts that, by action or omission, prevent or disturb the collection of samples within the scope of doping control, provided that the offender is not the sports practitioner;
2. The alteration, falsification or manipulation of any part of the doping control procedure;
3. Possession of prohibited substances or methods, either by the sports practitioner or by any member of their support staff, unless they have authorization for their therapeutic use.

Constitutes a serious misdemeanours, punishable by a fine of between 50,000$00 and 200,000$00, in the case of teams or clubs that compete in first division sports competitions:

• Teams or clubs to which sports practitioners belong, who are disciplinary punishment and who compete in official sporting competitions, incur an administrative offense for each sports practitioner who commits a violation of an anti-doping rule.

Constitutes a minor misdemeanours, punishable by a fine of between 10,000$00 and 100,000$00, in the case of teams, clubs or public limited companies that compete in second division sports competitions:

• The above provisions do not apply in the event that the team or club proves that the conduct or behavior of the athlete was its sole responsibility.

Teams or clubs that, in the same sports season, or in two consecutive sports seasons, have two or more sports practitioners disciplinary punishment for committing anti-doping rule violations, the fines provided for above, raised to double their minimum and maximum limits, are applicable.

The proceeds of the fines revert 30% to the State and 70% to ONAD-CV.

  “Doping has always existed and will always exist, and it is up to each athlete to be guided by ethics, taking the best possible advantage of the performance that he has, without health problems, because life is above all else”. (Unknown author)