Minister for Sport Peter Dutton (left) and new CEO of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Ben McDevitt. Source: Gary Ramage / News Corp Australia
NEW ASADA chief Ben McDevitt has confirmed the Essendon investigation is just weeks from completion.
McDevitt has given the strongest indication yet that show-cause notices will be issued.
"In relation to Essendon we are talking weeks, not months," McDevitt told the Herald Sun.
"I am as keen as everybody else to see these matters progress to finality.
"But in terms of when particular matters will be finalised, it's a difficult question because what we need to do, in fairness to each of the people who have been the subject of inquiries — some of whom are players and some of whom are support staff — is that each needs to be considered individually and in their own right.
"And each, of course, are properly entitled to due process and respect of privacy."
Club-appointed investigator Ziggy Switkowski last year shone a light on Essendon's "rapid diversification into exotic supplements" in 2012.
ASADA has investigated if what Zwitkowski described as "a disturbing picture of a pharmacologically experimental environment never adequately controlled or challenged or documented within the club" included breaches of anti-doping rules by players and/or officials.
Any charges would ultimately be heard by an AFL tribunal, with a maximum two-year ban applicable for using a banned drug. Essendon's sports science chief in 2012 Stephen Dank was in March issued with a show-cause notice, alleging 34 possible anti-doping breaches related to his role at the Bombers.
McDevitt, who took charge of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority last month, said athletes being investigated from the same team could receive show-cause notices at different stages, rather than en masse.
Show-cause notices are distributed in person.
"ASADA is not able to comment on individual cases but it would be fair to say that in the normal course of events, individual cases might progress to different stages of the process at different times," McDevitt said.
"I'm hoping that when we are able to make the decisions we will be able to communicate that as quickly as possible to who it concerns. But it's difficult because they have to be dealt with individually — each case has to be considered on its own merits."
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Downes has reviewed a significant amount of ASADA's evidence into the Essendon and Cronulla cases.
"In the time that I have been with the organisation I have read many, many documents associated with the thousands of documents and multitude of interviews that have been conducted in relation to those matters," McDevitt said.
"I have fully digested the Garry Downes review of the material that has been assembled and I note that in his report he has been very complimentary of the work done on this protracted and complex investigation by ASADA staff.
"For a start that gives me confidence in the work that's been done thus far by ASADA."
Asked if ASADA's decision to enter into a joint investigation with the AFL was a mistake, McDevitt said: "The concept or the construct of a joint investigation is not something that is foreign at all to law enforcement.
"At its core, philosophically I'm not opposed to joint investigations ... but if you are going to conduct joint investigations there needs to be extremely clear rules of engagement between the parties involved, particularly in relation to disclosure of information and exercise of powers."
Essendon has hinted at challenging the legality of the joint investigation in court if show-cause notices are issued by ASADA.
McDevitt said he did not agree with assertions the ASADA investigations had taken too long.
"These processes can be, by their nature, protracted because they involve complex investigations being conducted to compile briefs of evidence, which then need to be very carefully considered by legal entities," he said.
"When I look at complex sports-related doping matters that have occurred globally over the last few years, which have run for three, four or five years — this does not seem to be in my view really significantly protracted when I look at that."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
End to Bombers probe ‘weeks’ away
Dengan url
http://sportlivestyle.blogspot.com/2014/06/end-to-bombers-probe-aweeksa-away.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
End to Bombers probe ‘weeks’ away
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
End to Bombers probe ‘weeks’ away
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar