Austria to probe Kazakh biathlon team for possible doping breach
MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Police in Austria are to investigate whether the substances the Kazakh national team was found in possession of amount to doping in breach of the country's Criminal Code, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) said on Thursday.
"The investigators are currently assessing whether Austrian federal anti-doping laws have been violated, and whether this is a case of sport fraud [Sportsbetrug] as defined in the Austrian Criminal Code," the IBU said in a statement.
A large amount of medical equipment and substances was found and seized during searches yesterday at the hotel where the Kazakh biathlon team was staying, it said.
Austria's anti-doping agency (NADA) and the IBU took urine and blood samples from the athletes, it said. The searches were carried out by 30 police officers on the basis of a search warrant issued by the Office of the State Prosecutor in Innsbruck.
Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka thanked the police, NADA and IBU for cooperation.
"The Austrian police will be going to great lengths to clarify the issue of criminal liability," Sobotka was quoted in the IBU statement as saying.
The searches were prompted by information received from a witness who in January 2017 saw some people throwing several boxes out of several minibuses, which were found to contain used syringes, drips, vials and "handwritten notes, indicating that doping had taken place," according to the statement. The police also seized accreditation badges from various biathlon competitions.
Having analyzed the find, NADA and the criminal police concluded that the items belonged to the Kazakh biathlon team.