DOPING-DOCTOR CONVICTED IN CONCLUSION TO SPOTLIGHT DRUGS TRIAL

BERLIN, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Sports doctor Bernd Pansold was convicted and
fined by a Berlin court on Monday as the first trial to put former East
Germany's doping policy under the spotlight came to an end.

Pansold, the last of six officials of the swimming section of Berlin club SC
Dynamo to be judged, was handed a 14,400 marks ($8,600) fine.

Like the others on trial, the 56-year-old, who was the club's head doctor,
stood accused of having caused bodily harm to female swimmers by giving them
banned drugs in the 1970s and 1980s.

Two of those accused, doctor Dieter Binus and coach Rolf Glaeser, had
earlier been convicted by the court and fined.

The other three -- coaches Volker Frischke, Dieter Krause and Dieter
Lindemann -- saw the cases against them dropped after paying fines.

Under German law a court can decide to drop charges in return for payment of
a fine if it believes the case does not justify the time and resources
needed to bring it to a verdict.

The trial opened amid great media attention last March.

Several officials had admitted previously that the former East German
government, seeing sporting success as a vehicle to promote communism,
employed systematic doping. But the matter had never come to court.

A similar trial of five swimming officials from another Berlin club, TSC,
started and ended last August. Three were convicted and fined. The other two
accepted fines in return for the case against them being dropped.

Coaches from other sports, notably athletics, are currently under
investigation and more trials should follow.

Prosecutors also hope to bring sports officials in the former East German
communist party leadership to book for doping. Investigations are under way
and charges are expected to be filed soon.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst