TWO British journalists were convicted last night of libelling IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and were given a five-day suspended jail sentence.
The sentence on Vyv Simson and Andrew Jennings, who refused to attend the proceedings, was suspended for three years.
Simson and Jennings wrote The Lords of the Rings, a book which attacked Samaranch and his leadership of the International Olympic Committee.
The book, published in Britain in 1992 and since translated and distributed in other countries, alleges that the Olympic ideals have been corrupted by commercialisation and greed under Samaranch's leadership.
It alleges that Samaranch had been an active supporter of the late Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco and that he runs the IOC in a similar autocratic fashion.
Samaranch and IOC director general Francois Carrard testified Wednesday that the authors had attacked them out of a desire to destroy the structure of the IOC and to make money.