April 4, 2007 (Bonn, Germany) – A German prosecutor has confirmed that samples of blood found at Dr Eufemiano Fuentes’ Madrid clinic belong to German cyclist, Jan Ullrich (formerly with T-Mobile), linking him more directly to the Operacion Puerto doping scandal. “There can be no doubt,” declared Friedrich Apostel in Bonn after DNA tests compared the blood to a sample of Ullrich’s saliva. Apostel also dismissed claims of manipulation (of evidence), as advanced by Ullrich’s lawyers.

Peter-Michael Diestel, a lawyer retained by Ullrich, attempted to trivialize the DNA evidence, pointing out that the presence of Ullrich’s blood at Fuentes’ clinic is in itself not evidence of doping. He joked that perhaps the samples had been left to make blood sausages.

Major newspapers across Germany carried headlines denouncing Ullrich as a liar. Werner Franke, a specialist in anti-doping technology, alleged that Ullrich would not have left 4.5 litres of blood at Fuentes’ clinic for any purpose other than doping.

In the absence of German legislation against sports doping, the prosecutor’s office is proceeding to charge Ullrich with what Belgian website 7sur7 terms as “escroquerie,” which could be translated as “swindling” or “fraud.”