try this....it's on CNN SI.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/12/15/bc.cyc.armstrong.trial.ap/index.html

european media hates american winners

yes it is a joke... the european media has just about totally discounted the last 7 years lance has won the tour....

Check out the article in Bicycling Magazine (Jan-Feb), "Paging Dr. Ferrari." It involves the fellow at the root of this...Very Interesting...

oh i would love to add ,,, but this is not the forum ! LOL but You are correct and i agree.

Nosense at all...
Why Europeans can not accept that Lance is just the greatest rider in the Tour The France....and he is American...his is Texan!!!!
I agree with what someone else said already....bad stories....that is what sells

Talked with a friend of mine who works at Justice in International Law. While unfamiliar with the case she said that an American can be ordered to appear in a foreign court for civil and of course criminal infractions. Simeoni is suing Lance for defamation. I have read libel and /or slander which are two different things. Since Lance has deep pockets it is in his best interest to go. Of course he could refuse, then he would be in contempt of Italian courts and subject to all the problems THAT would bring up. Just because he is from the US doesn't mean he is above the law...Although there seems to be alot of that going on around here inside the Beltway recently. Hopefully Lance has nothing to hide and nothing to hedge about POC...I hope so!

Noel, No way do a majority of Europeans hate lance ... it is basically like anywhere else the world regarding the media. They will focus on the 1% that are the most venomous and have a glass half empty out look on everything. The problem is that the Media throws a temper tantrum to be taken seroius and that the "ideas" they report are valid and absoulte.

PoC is on the right track.

I don't claim to be an authority on Italian defamation law, but some quick research reveals some startling information.

First of all, unlike in the United States, truth is not an absolute defense in Italy.

Second, there are both criminal and civil defamation laws in Italy. It appears that Lance is being charged with criminal defamation, as well as civil.

On top of that, the civil defamation laws have recently been used in Italy as a means of intimidation. What a surprise:
"Concern is growing over the increasing influence of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, over the media, as Italy's libel law is used to intimidate journalists. Recent huge requests for civil damages - a popular alternative to criminal defamation complaints, which require independent investigation by a prosecutor - are threatening the survival of many newspapers and publishing companies."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,875898,00.html

As PoC states, the civil law process, particularly defamation cases, can be rife with abuse --- depositions, fishing expeditions, inquiries into anything and everything. Lance has the legal talent to handle this the right way; and it won't be some knee-jerk reaction that necessarily involves fighting on another guy's home turf with the deck stacked against him (to mix metaphors).

thehitman

Not having the time or desire to really dig into this,It appears POC is on to something..As I read in "Eurotrash Monday "at Pezcycling news .com there is some tiff going on beyond the Simeoni thing and that maybe the whole business could be about discrediting LA...Something that often happens in Eurocycling it seems...discredting those who win and achieve. In my opinion the cyclists have brought it on themselves...how many can you name that have been found quilty or admitted use of some sort of go juice or another? Alot. Even Simeoni has admitted previous use of EPO,and where is Tyler? Il Pirate?
The whole affair is a mess and we can only hope that it is just sour grapes.

Update on the Italian Judicial System:

Watch out Lance!!! They got some strange laws in Italia!

"An Italian judge heard arguments Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed. The priest's atheist accuser, Luigi Cascioli, says the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2,000 years with a fable that Christ existed, and that the Rev. Enrico Righi violated two Italian laws by reasserting the claim.
Lawyers for Righi and Cascioli, old schoolmates, made their arguments in a brief, closed-door hearing before Judge Gaetano Mautone in Viterbo, north of Rome. They said they expected the judge to decide quickly.
Cascioli filed a criminal complaint in 2002 after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus did indeed exist, and that he was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.
Cascioli claims that Righi's assertion constituted two crimes under Italian law: so-called "abuse of popular belief," in which someone fraudulently deceives people; and "impersonation," in which someone gains by attributing a false name to a person."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_re_eu/did_jesus_exist