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2004 Olympic 400m hurdles winner Fani Halkia has been charged with criminal doping offences after she tested positive for steroids days before she was due to compete at the Beijing Games.

Sources said the Greek prosecutor had charged Halkia and sprinters Dimitris Regas and Tassos Gousis with consuming banned substances and coach George Panagiotopoulos with supplying them.

"The prosecutor has charged Halkia, Gousis and Regas for doping. He has pressed charges against the coach for supplying them the illegal substances," a court source said. "They are expected to go to a trial within a year."

Greece launched an investigation into doping violations after a number of Greek athletes hit the headlines for failing drugs tests rather than winning Olympic medals.

Halkia, the surprise winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 2004 Athens Games, tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone, better known as M3.

The 29-year-old Halkia, who has repeatedly said she has never deliberately taken performance-enhancing steroids, was the most prominent among the 19 Greek athletes who failed tested positive before this year's Games.

"There is no evidence that Halkia deliberately took illegal substances or that Panagiotopoulos is a moral instigator," their lawyer, Giorgos Agiostratitis, told Reuters. "I think the charges will be overturned during the trial."

The International Olympic Committee had joined the lawsuit against Halkia's coach Panagiotopoulos saying it wished to target the providers of illegal substances and not the athletes. Panagiotopoulos has denied any involvement in doping.

Reuters