Former France international prop Laurent Benezech, who made controversial claims of widespread doping in French rugby, has been cleared of defamation by a court in Paris on Friday.
Benezech, 47, has claimed that people were turning a blind eye to doping in rugby in the same way that had once been the norm in cycling.
The court, however, ruled as inadmissible a civil action brought by the Provale Union representing 134 players on the grounds that they had "not being targeted by the allegedly defamatory comments".
But it did accept an individual action brought by former Bayonne player Francois Carillo, who had been specifically named by Benezech.
Benezech had insinuated in a newspaper article last year that Carillo's heart attack in December 2012 was suspicious.
But in this case the court cleared Benezech on the grounds he was "entitled to the benefit of good faith".
In two interviews in April 2013, Benezech claimed he saw doping "slowly become a widespread epidemic" in a sport which he played until 2000, adding that rugby was "in exactly the same situation as cycling before the Festina affair".
The Festina affair was an infamous case from 1998 in which the Festina team doctor was stopped by customs officers at the France-Belgium border and found to be carrying doping products.
The court found that the former Toulouse and Harlequins player, speaking on a subject of general interest, had not libelled anyone but had been expressing his concerns about a sport he loved.
It found that Benezech "had taken examples to denounce the inaction of the world of rugby regarding players' health in a sport that he had played with passion ... young athletes who could put their lives in danger by using products or practices that are not necessarily illegal."
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