May 09, 2013 (València, Spain) – As reported previously, Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes recently received a one-year suspended sentence for performing blood transfusions, often combined with banned substances, on top professional athletes. Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria found Fuentes guilty of endangering public health, barred him from medical practice in sports for four years and ordered the doctor to pay a fine. At the same time, Santamaria ordered evidence to be destroyed once appeals are heard. Now a petition is gaining traction to prevent this destruction of up to 200 bags of blood.

“Honest athletes deserve to know the names of those that have cheated by using forbidden substances,” states Spanish sports journalist Fernando Miñana in the preamble to his petition to be presented to the Madrid provincial court. He points out that, “In order to do that, national and international anti-doping entities need to be able to analyse these blood samples for DNA and find those who cheated.”

Dr. Fuentes’ patient list included cyclists, soccer players, tennis players, and boxers. For reasons that are poorly understood, only the names of cyclists have been made public – read more on Pedal here.

Miñana’s bilingual (English/Spanish) online petition had gathered 25,000 names by press time – to sign it click HERE.