Lance Armstrong may now face perjury charges

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong may now face perjury charges after he had testified in a court case in 2005 that he never took any kind of performance-enhancing drugs. A federal probe into Armstrong and alleged doping was dropped in February this year, but the US Attorney's office has now claimed it could be reopened if new evidence emerged in the case.

The new evidence could include the findings of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report which, as well as accusing Armstrong of being the "ringleader of the biggest doping conspiracy in sporting history", accuses him of making seven false statements to win a 2005 Dallas court case where a five million dollar performance bonus was at stake.

The civil arbitration in November 2005 was called to give a ruling between Armstrong (and his company Tailwind Sports) against SCA Promotions Inc and Ted Lyonhamman Insurance Services, who were unwilling to pay him his performance bonus over doping fears. The action was laid at the Dallas County District Court, but Armstrong gave three and a half hours' evidence in a video recording proclaiming his innocence.

The US Attorney's office in Los Angeles however remained reserved on whether the damning USADA report will lead to a reopening of the criminal investigation against Armstrong. "We are not commenting in relation to the USADA report," the Telegraph quoted a spokesman for the US Attorney's office, as saying when asked whether the USADA report constituted new evidence.

Although Armstrong gave evidence under oath at the US Federal investigation into US Postal last year, investigators decided not to bring any criminal proceedings.