UCI President Pat McQuaid speaks to the press(Image credit: AFP)
The UCI Independent commission set up to investigate issues and allegations arising out of the Reasoned Decision of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has called for anyone with any evidence to make a submission before December 31.
The UCI announced the creation of the Commission in October when Pat McQuaid confirmed that Lance Armstrong would be stripped of his seven Tour de France victories. Last week the UCI said that former British Court of Appeal judge Sir Philip Otton will chair the commission. He will be assisted by House of Lords Peer and Paralympic Champion, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and Australian lawyer Malcolm Holmes QC.
A special website (www.uciic.org) has been created, hosting details of the three member of the panel and the terms of reference of the investigation.
The site lists an email address and a London postal address with for those wishing to submit evidence.
"The Commission invites all persons in possession of information that may assist the Commission in relation to the Terms of Reference to contact the Commission, with a written summary of their evidence and documents," a message on the sites reads.
The Commission can be contacted through the following means:
Email: evidence@macfarlanes.com
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Postal address: For the attention of the Independent Commission Macfarlanes LLP 20 Cursitor Street London EC4A 1LT.
The Commission will hold a hearing in London between 9-26 April 2013. It then aims to submit its report to the UCI by 1 June 2013, or shortly after. The costs will be covered by the UCI.
The terms of reference call on the commission to determine whether the allegations against the UCI set out in the [USADA] Reasoned Decision are well founded, if the UCI's anti-doping policies were inadequate and if payments were made by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Team to the UCI between 1998 and 2012 and, if so, whether it was appropriate for the UCI to have accepted such payments, or to have accepted them on the basis (explicit or implicit) upon which they were made.
The Commission will also investigate whether any persons previously convicted of doping, or voluntarily admitting to doping, or supporting riders in doping, should be able to work within the world of cycling in the future; and, if not, how such a prohibition could and should be enforced.
