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The draft bill will still need to be discussed in parliament
and could be passed as early as next spring. It only targets top
athletes, supported by state funds and on the national
anti-doping agency's test pool and does not affect amateurs.
Doctors or other individuals, procuring the substances, could
face jail terms of up to 10 years as the entourage of the
athletes is also moved more into focus.
German sports officials welcomed the tougher sanctions included
in the draft, saying fear of prison would be a major deterrent
for doping offenders.
Several other European nations, including Italy, Spain and
France, have already passed similar laws.
"We are happy that a specific proposal is now on the table,"
Alfons Hoermann, head of Germany's Olympic Sports confederation
(DOSB) said on Wednesday. "What the government does is going
into the right direction. We welcome this."
Germany has had several big name athletes admit to doping or
caught using banned substances in recent year including cyclists
Jan Ullrich, Stefan Schumacher as well as biathlete Evi
Sachenbacher-Stehle, who tested positive at this year's Sochi
winter Olympics.
"I fully support it if we take it seriously," Oliver Bierhoff,
team manager of Germany's national football team told reporters.
"It is important for an athlete to say they have a
responsibility and risk going to jail (if they dope).
"Only with such drastic measures can we achieve having a clean
sport."
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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