Giacomo Tortu, the brother of Italian sprinter Filippo Tortu, could face trail for allegedly paying a hacker to spy on Marcell Jacobs to find out if the 2020 Olympic 100m champion was taking performance-enhancing drugs.
    As well as being rivals in individual competitions, Jacobs and Filippo Tortu were part of the Italian relay team that won gold in the 4x100m at the Tokyo Olympics.
    Giacomo Tortu was among 81 suspects named by Italian prosecutors in a statement released on Thursday announcing that they had concluded the second part of an investigation into an alleged cyber spying ring involving the Milan-based Equalize company.
    Italian prosecutors often give such notifications before they request indictments.
    The statement said Giacomo Tortu allegedly paid 10,000 euros to an alleged hacker, Gabriele Pegoraro, to get access to the telephones of Jacobs, his manager, his coach and his nutritionist between September 2020 and August 2021.
    The Tokyo Olympics took place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
    It said he paid the fee via the mediation of another suspect.
    Prosecutors said other well-known people to have been spied on included former Italy forward Christian 'Bobo' Vieri, former photography agent Fabrizio Corona, the blogger Selvaggia Lucarelli, and actor, director and cinema producer Ricky Tognazzi.
    The prosecutors also requested that 15 people, including former Equalize boss and ex-Milan Fair Foundation president Enrico Pazzali, be sent to trial in relation to the first part of the investigation.
    They face charges including criminal association and unauthorized access to databases.

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