In the latest development in the Operación Puerto case, Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and Jose Luis Merino will appear today (Thursday) at court number 31 in Plaza de Castilla, Madrid. This follows on from their arrest in May of this year, relating to the investigation of a alleged doping network involving cyclists and other sportsmen.
Fuentes and Merino must appear in court at 10 am local time. Manolo Saiz, the then-Liberty Seguros team manager who was also arrested on May 23rd, has already been heard by the judge.
Also due to make an appearance this week are the former mountain bike rider Alberto Leon and former Comunidad Valenciana's assistant director Ignacio Labarta. These will appear in court on Friday. Each of the five men are suspected of involvement of the case, which is reported to concern up to 200 sportspeople. Amongst those implicated in the case – although not proven guilty as yet – are names such as Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), Ivan Basso (CSC), Joseba Beloki, Jörg Jaksche (Astana team), Francisco Mancebo (AG2R) and others.
Earlier this month, Dr Fuentes confirmed that he had worked with sportspeople from other disciplines, including football, tennis, basketball and athletics. Although no names have yet emerged in this regard, the testimony from him and Jose Luis Merino could have far reaching consequences and extend beyond those in the peloton.
Courtesy of Hernan Alvarez and Antonio J. Salmerón
