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Hamilton to testify in dope trial

Madrid - Lance Armstrong's former cycling team-mate, Tyler Hamilton, will testify at the trial in the "Operation Puerto" doping scandal under way in Spain, a court official said on Tuesday.

The court has agreed to a request by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is a civil party in the case, for US rider Hamilton to testify in the trial which opened on Monday, the official in the Madrid court told AFP.

Hamilton, 42, rode alongside Armstrong in the US Postal Service team in the late 1990s and testified against him in the investigation that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year.

In the separate Spanish affair, sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and four others are charged with public health offences over a blood-doping scheme that has implicated dozens of cyclists.

The court had yet to set a date for Hamilton's appearance.

Police busted a network led by Fuentes in 2006 when they seized 200 bags of blood and other evidence of performance-enhancing transfusions, in an investigation dubbed "Operation Puerto".

The court official said on Tuesday the doping agency and other civil parties had demanded access to some of the blood and that the judge had given them three days to make that demand in writing.

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