Newspaper once sued for libel says American's claims were "deliberately false"
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Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Lance Armstrong waved goodbye to his 7 Tours de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong in the good old days(Image credit: AFP Photo)
Expect to see Lance Armstrong in suit and tie this fall if his case goes to arbitration(Image credit: AFP Photo)
The Sunday Times, for which David Walsh wrote numerous articles questioning the validity of Lance Armstrong's performances, is suing the American for up to 1.2 million euros having made a libel payment in 2006.
The British newspaper paid Armstrong £30,0000 (368,000 euros) in 2004 after elements of the allegations raised in Walsh's co-authored book 'L.A. Confidentiel' were printed in an article printed on June 13, 2004 and written by Alan English. The suit was settled out of court in 2006 after London's High Court ruled that the article "meant accusation of guilt and not simply reasonable grounds to suspect." The judge said that the article strongly implied that Armstrong had taken performance enhancing drugs, and that The Sunday Times would have had to defend that position if the case went to trial.
The Sunday Times is now making a claim for the original legal costs paid to Armstrong, along with interest and its own legal costs. In a letter to Armstrong's lawyers printed in Sunday's edition of the paper, it says:
"It is clear that the proceedings were baseless and fraudulent. Your representations that you had never taken performance-enhancing drugs were deliberately false."
Armstrong chose not to fight the USADA case instead, issuing a statement saying "There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.'.
"For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt.
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"This investigation has not been about learning the truth or cleaning up cycling, but about punishing me at all costs."
