Spanish doctors 'may face action over Lance Armstrong'
The Spanish anti-doping agency on Friday said that it was studying a report by its US counterpart on the Lance Armstrong doping case to establish whether there is any evidence to prosecute three Spaniards implicated.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: October 12, 2012 09:14 PM IST
The Spanish anti-doping agency on Friday said that it was studying a report by its US counterpart on the Lance Armstrong doping case to establish whether there is any evidence to prosecute three Spaniards implicated.
A spokesman for the AEA told AFP that they were "currently looking at the document to determine whether there is constituent evidence of a crime that could justify transfer to the public prosecutor".
The AEA released a statement on Thursday, highlighting three Spaniards cited in the 202-page US Anti-Doping Agency report into which it placed Armstrong at the heart of what it said was the biggest doping programme in sport history.
"Some of the evidence detailed suggests that such activities have taken place in our country, with the potential involvement of Spanish doctors Luis Garcia del Moral and Pedro Celaya and the coach Pepe Marti, and the possible involvement of other national athletes," the statement said.
The USADA report, published on Wednesday, details the reasons behind its announcement in August to ban Armstrong for life for doping violations and decision to strip him of his seven Tour de France wins.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) governing body has just under three weeks to confirm the ruling.
One witness cited in the report, former cyclist Jonathan Vaughters, accused two doctors of having organised doping at the heart of Armstrong's US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams between 1999 and 2005.
Pepe Marti, who worked until 2009 with Armstrong's sporting director Johan Bruyneel, was described as a "postman" who was in charge of ferrying doping products to cyclists on the team.
"It is likely that the Spanish (anti-doping) agency will transfer the documentation to the public prosecutor" with a decision then taken about whether to pursue any case, the AEA spokesman said.