Murder investigation – the Pantani death is reopened
Marco Pantani (here with Lance Armstrong, left) at the Tour de France 2000
Quelle: Getty Images/Mike Powell
In 2004 Marco Pantani was found dead in a hotel room. The then 34-year-old Radstar died according to an autopsy of a cocaine overdose. Now the file was opened again. The Italian’s dealer provided new information.
NAfter the death of former cycling star Marco Pantani in 2004, the investigation into murder is again underway. The public prosecutor in Rimini opened a relevant file, Fiorenzo Alessi, lawyer for the bereaved, told the Ansa news agency on Monday.
Two public prosecutor’s investigations had previously come to the conclusion that the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winners had not died as a result of outside interference. Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in Rimini on February 14, 2004. According to the autopsy, the then 34-year-old died of a cocaine overdose.
But now there is new knowledge from the former dealer of the athlete, who was one of Jan Ullrich’s big rivals. According to Ansa, the dealer testified in a parliamentary hearing in early 2020: “Marco was killed. I knew him five or six months before he died and he didn’t look like someone who wanted to kill himself. “
Tour de France 1998: Pantani in yellow behind Jan Ullrich
What: pa / dpa / Pascal_Pavani
The man said that Pantani had been looking for the truth about the incidents in Madonna di Campiglio: There Pantani had been excluded from the Giro d’Italia in 1999 because of a suspicious doping result. Pantani always protested his innocence. Investigations, however, clearly suggested doping abuse.
Pantani’s mother is also said to have testified
After the statements of the dealer were handed over to the public prosecutor, the prosecutor opened the murder investigation against unknown again. Pantani’s mother also reportedly called on the prosecutors. “Mamma Tonina wants to know once and for all whether her son died of a mix of antidepressants and cocaine or whether there are other reasons,” said lawyer Alessi of Ansa.
It had already been determined in 2004 and also in 2016. An investigating judge said at the time that the murder theory was pure fantasy. The Supreme Court then confirmed the archiving of the cause.
.
