No new revelations from Fuentes and Merino

The Operación Puerto investigation moved forward to the next stage on Thursday with the questioning of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and Jose Luis Merino today at court number 31, Plaza de Castilla in Madrid. According to Spain's news agency EFE, both of them remain with the same charges against them. The judge will now decide whether to dismiss the case or send it to trial.

"There is an open procedure and my client's situation as an accused person doesn't change after today's presentation," said Fuentes's lawyer Julian Perez Templado. "He has been declaring for more than two hours. The process will be opened up to investigation depending on the judge's decision. We do not know when the following procedural steps will take place, because among other things, there are pending blood analyses."

He then added that "my client ratified his first declarations...denying before the judge that he has practiced actions contrary to public health."

Meanwhile the lawyer of Jose Luis Merino, Agustín Tornos, explained to EFE that, "my client is in the same situation as the first time that he spoke before the investigating magistrate."

Another two men involved in the case, former mountain bike rider Alberto Leon and former Comunidad Valenciana's assistant director Ignacio Labarta, must appear tomorrow at the same court.

Courtesy of Hernan Alvarez and Antonio J. Salmerón