The lawyer of Marta Dominguez denounces "lack of transparency" from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

The lawyer of Marta Dominguez, José Rodríguez, has denounced the "lack of transparency" from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that has "prevented him from exercising an important part of her defense" in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where he has "submitted sufficient allegations" to declare her innocent.

"I have to be optimistic about the part that has allowed us to defend ourselves. Our experts Cristóbal Belda and Chema Peña sufficiently demonstrated that the accusation was unfounded and I believe that the given arguments should be enough to not sanction, but there hasn't been a fair process," said the athlete's attorney to EFE.

After two days of hearing at the CAS headquarters in Lausanne, before a panel consisting of the Swede Conny Jorneklint (president), the Belgian Romano Subiotto and the Luxembourger Jacques Radoux, Rodríguez questioned "the lack of transparency of an organization like WADA" and its attitude in refusing to provide "the data to analyze the scientific validity" of the biological passport.

"It is a real scandal that an accusation is made about the biological passport and the athlete is not allowed to verify if the biological passport is being correctly applied. If the decision is based on the assumption that the passport is well designed and we have not been able to defend ourselves in that part, any decision made on that basis is unjust," he added.

José Rodríguez explained that WADA and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) - parties that appealed to CAS the Spanish Federation's decision not to sanction the athlete - "have not provided anything new" at the hearing and insisted on the need to validate the biological passport.

"If they say that hypothyroidism does not affect the passport, I do not understand why the accusation against cyclist Roman Kreuziger has been withdrawn, whose only defense was that. They are admitting that they do not have the passport well designed when an athlete trains at altitude or uses hypobaric chambers, so what do they have?" he commented.

Rodríguez also denounced that both WADA and the IAAF refused his request for the CAS hearing to be public and with the presence of the press. The regulations of the tribunal require unanimity for it to be so.

"I find the lack of transparency, especially from WADA, scandalous. I believe that states that should ensure that their citizens do not have their fundamental rights violated should act against the lack of transparency of WADA, because the biological passport affects not only Marta Dominguez but all athletes," he pointed out.

In his opinion, "if they do not want to make that information available to athletes," they should do so "through an independent agency of recognized prestige that validates everything. Meanwhile, this passport should not be applied in the way it has been," he added.

Although CAS has not yet referred to the date on which it can pronounce on the case, the resolution of it may be delayed as there are still "issues of competence" raised by the defense of the athlete that need to be clarified.

"When one party alleges lack of competence, the CAS regulations dictate that the other parties must respond in writing so that it can be debated at the hearing. WADA and the IAAF did not submit anything in writing before the hearing, they did it orally and we have until July 1 as the deadline to refute. Our arguments will be communicated to them and we will be able to respond to theirs again," he explained.

The hearing held for the past two days at CAS is a consequence of the appeal made by the IAAF and WADA 14 months ago after the decision of the Spanish Athletics Federation on March 20, 2014, not to sanction Marta Dominguez for irregularities in her biological passport coinciding with the time when the athlete won the world title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on August 17, 2009, in Berlin.