By Susan Westemeyer
Former Team Telekom/T-Mobile doctors apparently faked patient data in connection with their doping activities involving the team's riders, the Freiburg University Clinic announced on Thursday. In a press release, the Clinic said, "As part of its investigation, the Freiburg University Clinic has found in its electronic documentation system data that was falsified - that is, saved under false names. These are in connection with the treatment of the T-Mobile Team."
The clinic said that it had turned all of the material over to the proper investigating authorities and would have no further comment.
Thursday was also to be the first day of a trial by Dr. Andreas Schmid before a German court challenging his summary dismissal from the clinic. However, after the new charges were raised, Schmid's suit will have to wait until the public prosecutor's case is finished, possibly becoming irrelevant in the light of the new criminal accusations against him.
According to the German news magazine Focus, Schmid had made up medical details for fictional patients for years, in order to submit bills for blood treatments done on Telekom/T-Mobile riders. The magazine noted that the patients were given the home address of Hugstetter Strasse 55 in Freiburg - which also happens to be the street address of the sports medicine clinic.
"We are talking about a systematic cover-up," said the clinic's attorney, Peter Rambach.
Godefroot sues D'Hont
Meanwhile, Walter Godefroot, former Team Telekom/T_Mobile manager, is asking a court to order those responsible for the book "Memoires van een wierlverzorger" ("Memoirs of a cycling soigneur") by Jef d'Hont to pay him 700,000 Euro in damages, according to Sportwereld. In the book, Godefroot and his administrative assistant Eddy Vandenhecke are portrayed as having organised a doping scheme at Team Telekom during the 1990s, which the two Belgians deny.
The suit is scheduled to be heard Monday in a court in Gent, Belgium. It names D'Hont, his ghostwriter Maarten Michielssens and the publisher, Van Haelwyck.
