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andre agassi could face prosecution

Andre Agassi’s extraordinary confession about taking the highly addictive drug Crystal Meth, but moreover the lies that he told to avoid prosecution, have led to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) contacting the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with the possibility of further investigation into the case and the possibility of a federal prosecution.

WADA Director General David Howman has become pro-active on the Agassi case by saying

“If we didn’t take any steps, somebody would be knocking on our door saying, ‘Well, what are you doing about this?’  Our task is to protect the clean athletes and to make sure that these sorts of things don’t recur.”

Agassi has said through the serialisation of his soon to be released autobiography that he knowingly took the drug crystal meth with his then trainer and when caught by the anti doping agency in 1997 lied to the ATP saying that his drink had been spiked.

The ATP say they cannot comment on the case as it has since withdrawn the doping charge against him. WADA can do little about the case retrospectively as the incident occurred in 1997 and is now outside of the eight year bar in their statute of limitations.

Perhaps Agassi had been advised of this before he released the revelation, but if that is the case the former tennis number one may be in for a shock as WADA insist that they will investigate all avenues open to them in an effort to bring a charge against him.

“If he’s lied, and he’s confessed he lied, so he’s obviously lied and he lied under oath then I think that warrants further investigation to see whether there might be any other charges. We all know about Marion Jones*, she lied to a tribunal, it can’t just be one of those things you get away with.

The second issue is, he had a lawyer represent him, does his lawyer know that he was lying? Maybe something can be done in relation to that.”

*Marion Jones served six months in prison after lying to federal prosecutors about her drug use.