Cycling: Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca has been cleared of doping because of insufficient evidence.
The Italian Olympic Committee's (Coni) anti-doping prosecutor had wanted Di Luca to be banned for two years for showing abnormal hormone levels in a dope test carried out after the 17th stage of last May's race.
However, a Coni spokesman said today there was "not a sufficient degree of probability" to rule against the LPR rider, who did not attend the hearing and now looks set to defend his title when the 2008 Giro starts on May 10th.
A first hearing was held on April 1st following almost a year of legal wrangling because of complex scientific data. The commission decided it could not make a ruling and asked three independent experts to go away and form an opinion.
They revealed today that there was still no clarity over why the hormone levels were abnormal.
"The opinion of the experts is conflicting. It appears difficult to establish whether the athlete's urine has been tampered with," Di Luca's lawyer Federico Cecconi told the hearing.
At the first hearing, the defence said the abnormal hormone level was because the 32-year-old had drunk water before the test. They said tests had been carried out with volunteers who exhibited similar hormone levels having drunk water.
The anti-doping prosecutor maintained the abnormal reading was because of an intravenous drip possibly containing plasma.
"Blood and urine cannot be tampered with," prosecuting lawyer Fabio Filocamo told the hearing before the not guilty verdict. "Those who do it are committing an illegal act...therefore he must be punished."
In October, Di Luca was given a three-month ban by Coni for a separate doping matter and was sanctioned for his involvement with Carlo Santuccione, a doctor accused of supplying doping products to athletes.
The rider appealed that ruling and is awaiting a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).