Former walker Alex Schwazer has given a mandate to his lawyers to prepare the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg against the sentence of sports justice (Tas of Lausanne) which in May 2021 had confirmed the disqualification without take into account the acquittal of the investigating judge of the Court of Bolzano, Walter Pelino. breaking latest news learns this from the Bolzano lawyer Gerhard Brandstaetter who defends Schwazer. The appeal will be ready within the next 3-4 weeks.
Judge Pelino in the sentence of 17 February 2021, in addition to having dismissed the criminal proceedings against the South Tyrolean walker for “not having committed the crime”, against the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Athletics Federation, had written that the two entities “operate in a totally self-referential manner, not tolerating external controls to the point of producing false declarations”.
According to the investigating judge from Bolzano, “the urine samples taken from Alex Schwazer on January 1, 2016 were altered (therefore tampered with, ed) in order to make them prove positive and therefore to obtain the disqualification and discredit of the athlete, as well as of his coach. Sandro Donati ».
The Italian walker, Olympic gold medalist in the 50 km in Beijing 2008, following the acquittal, with his team of lawyers had filed an appeal to try the acquittal also on the sporting level. In May 2021 the Sports Arbitration Tribunal of Lausanne did not allow the suspension of the disqualification while in the following autumn the first civil law court of the Swiss Federal Court of Lausanne did not grant the revision of the disqualification because the author of the disqualification had not been indicated. “Tampering” with urine specimens.