Doctor Michele Ferrari expected to face criminal charges for doping
Lance Armstrong’s Doctor, Michele Ferrari might face criminal charges in addition to his life ban, as a result of the USADA’s detailed case after the Italian authorities completed their investigations.
Padova prosecutor Benedetto Roberti is conducting a new investigation for past two years which is near its end as reported earlier by Associated Press.
It has been stated that as many as 70 individuals are included in the investigation with 20 athletes along with soigneurs and doctors including Giovanni Visconti, Diego Caccia, Moris Possoni and Michele Scarponi, and more recently Leonardo Bertagnolli.
According to a statement issued by Italian police on May 11, 2011, Doctor Ferrari helped several cyclists including Leonardo Bertagnolli, Kreuziger, Gasparotto and Chicchi and explained how to avoid testing positive for EPO.
The UCI banned substance and positive results can be avoided by consuming micro doses of the drug injected into a vein, he educated the cyclists during a training camp in St Moritz, as noted by Bertagnolli after admitting the charges.
"We talked about it between us and the team knew: Pellizotti, Kreuziger, Gasparotto, Chicchi," the statement reads. "I remember that in 2007 I also saw Popovych and Bileka".
"It was Ferrari who even indicated the kind of fridge to buy (to keep the blood), giving me a leaflet. I bought I myself. Ferrari told me the temperature to conserve the blood," Bertagnolli's statement reads.
"He advised me how to do the transfusions, saying to take out the blood before going to altitude and then putting it back after altitude, so to better justify the changes in haematocrit and reticolytes, etc".
However, the Italian Doctor has always denied the doping allegations on different forums, most recently on the 53X12.com website.
He noted that he has never committed or even witnessed doping practices within or outside the USPS team and neither did he went to the team training camps.
Ferrari briefed that he was only performing routine functional training and testing programs which are carried out by all other Doctors travelling with the teams.
He explained that he has no idea, why he is being targeted and call it as ‘unfortunate events and documented lies’ by those who chose to dope in order to reach the heights of their benefits and are now blaming him.
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