"As far as I know, there is one cyclist who is still active and whose name is not yet publicly known. However, I don't know whether he will be nominated by his team for the Tour de France," senior public prosecutor Kai Gräber, who drafted the indictment in the trial starting on 16 September, told the magazine "Tour". A total of 19 names of the 23 athletes involved in the network around the physician Mark S. are known.
According to Gräber, the missing names in the trial will not become known through the evidence. "This is because blood doping was not yet a criminal offence for these athletes at the time we were able to prove it, or was time-barred from the point of view of the people treating them," said the lawyer. Due to the Anti-Doping Act, however, NADA is able to obtain information from the public prosecutor's office and examine the consequences under sports law. "I think that one or two things will come to light," said Gräber.
When it comes to cycling, however, the 55-year-old does not believe that this could result in "a shake-up". "The facts are largely known," said Gräber.
In the trial, the sports doctor Mark S. is accused of offences against the Medicines Act and the Anti-Doping Act. The public prosecutor's office assumes that he has regularly practised blood doping worldwide in an unknown number of cases since the end of 2011. In February 2019, Austrian and German authorities carried out raids on him and others during the Nordic World Ski Championships in Innsbruck and Seefeld.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:200818-99-209077/2
