The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) will have their non-compliance hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland move forward from November 2-5 with strict measures in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The hearing was initially supposed to take place before the end of April prior to the pandemic.
“In light of the travel restrictions and sanitary measures in place in Switzerland and in the Canton of Vaud due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing will take place in a secured location in Lausanne, in a mixed format with the parties, legal representatives and expert witnesses attending either in-person or by video-conference,” said the CAS in a press release.
The hearing will not be public, and in-person access will be reserved only for those directly involved in the case.
Even before COVID-19 hit, the hearing wasn’t going to be public anyway, “due to the absence of an agreement between all parties concerned”, the CAS said at the time.
CASE BACKGROUND
After RUSADA was reinstated as compliant back in September of 2018, one of the conditions was that authorities had to grant WADA Intelligence and Investigations access to the authentic Laboratory Information Management System data and underlying raw analytical data contained within the Moscow Laboratory.
After collecting data in January, an independent WADA compliance committee opened a case against RUSADA and recommended that it be declared non-compliant for a period of four years in September.
In December, RUSADA formally appealed the sanctions. On January 9th, WADA filed a formal request for arbitration with CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland to resolve the dispute.
In late February, the CAS issued a release indicating that the hearing would not be public and would conclude sometime before the end of April.