Austrian court dismissed charges against pharmacist

An Austrian court has dismissed charges against a Vienna pharmacist who sold a pro cyclist EPO and testosterone for over two years. The country's anti-doping law was not in effect at the time, and laws controlling prescription medicines have a one-year statute of limitations.

“What you did was of course not good,” said the judge, who had no choice but to dismiss the charges. The pharmacist has already lost his licence.

The case involved the former professional rider Christof K. , who has been charged with distributing banned products to colleagues. Under Austrian law, the full names of persons arrested and undergoing trials are not publicly released. When he was arrested last fall, K. was identified in the media as a moderately successful rider on the national level.

K. testified against the pharmacist, who provided him with the products from 2005 to 2007. “I often visited him. Once, or twice a month,” he claimed. At the beginning of the trial, the pharmacist had denied ever knowing or seeing K.

As of 2007, K. is said to have to gone to another pharmacist, who also provided him with anabolic steroids. K. was arrested in March 2009k, at which time he ended his career.