Franke "can't read Spanish"

By Susan Westemeyer

German anti-doping crusader, Dr. Werner Franke, claimed to have read in the Operación Puerto documents that Jan Ullrich paid the Spanish Dr. Fuentes €35,000 for illegal doping products, but after losing a court case, he now has admitted to radsport-aktiv.de that he "can't read Spanish."

On Tuesday, a court in Hamburg, Germany, upheld an injunction against Franke prohibiting him from making such claims against Ullrich. Last summer Franke appeared on German television with the documents in his hand and claimed that this information was contained in this document.

"There are many unbelievable things in these documents, but this sentence does not appear," said the ruling judge. "When you cite a source that doesn't exist, you are out of luck!" The judge noted, however, that there are numerous mentions of Ullrich in the documents prepared by the Spanish Guardia Civil.

Franke's statement "just went a little too far," the judge said, noting that "This deals with the way it was said, not the content," according to the German press agency dpa.

Franke explained yesterday, "It couldn't have been a statement of fact. I couldn't read the report. It is in Spanish and I can't read Spanish."