OREANDA-NEWS. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized the fact that the signatures of the former head of the Moscow Anti-doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov in the documents on the case of Russian biathlonists were false. This was stated by lawyer Aleksey Panich, representing the interests of Olga Zaitseva.

On March 2, the Court of Arbitration for Sport began the trial of Zatseva, Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova, who were disqualified for life in 2017 for violating anti-doping rules at the Sochi Olympic Games. The judges adopted a statement by the defense of Russian athletes that the documents provided by the IOC in this case contain fake signatures of Rodchenkov. The court gave the IOC a day to give explanation. It was noted that the testimony of the ex-head of the Moscow laboratory is the key evidence of the athletes’ guilt.

According to Panich, the evidence provided by the defense is sufficient to exclude Rodchenkov’s testimony from the cases of Zaitseva, Vilukhina and Romanova.