LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Olympic 1,500-meter champion Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain faced an IOC disciplinary hearing on Monday to explain why he tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA after the Beijing Games.

The Morocco-born runner was the first of five athletes appearing before the International Olympic Committee panel. They were caught this year in new tests using blood samples taken at the games.
The others are Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, who won silver in the road race, German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Croatian 800-meter runner Vanja Perisic and Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.
The IOC can strip athletes of their results and medals, and ban them from the 2012 London Olympics. Rulings are expected next month.
Ramzi emerged from the IOC headquarters with his Los Angeles-based lawyer Maurice Suh around 90 minutes after the hearing started.
Suh, whose previous clients in doping cases include former Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin and cyclist Floyd Landis, told The Associated Press he could not comment on the hearing.
Ramzi was followed by Rebellin, of whom lawyer Fabio Pavone said on arriving that the Italian was “totally unaware” of having doped.
“Mr. Rebellin is going to profess himself completely innocent and that he does not understand how he found himself in this situation,” Pavone told the AP through a translator.
“He has always been a clean athlete and he intends to demonstrate that. He is confident because he has nothing to hide.”
The disciplinary panel was chaired by IOC vice president Thomas Bach of Germany, and included IOC executive board members Gerhard Heiberg of Norway and Denis Oswald of Switzerland.
“It will be the usual hearings and let us see what happens,” Bach said Monday. “There is no fixed timetable for the decisions.”
The panel has the power to issue rulings but can also make recommendations to the executive board for a final decision. The board next meets in Berlin on Aug. 13-14.
Under new IOC rules, any athlete caught doping and banned for at least six months cannot compete in the next Olympics.
Its rulings can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne for a binding decision.
The athletes tested positive for CERA, an advanced version of the endurance-boosting hormone EPO, when a new lab test became available following the Olympics.
The drug was also found in tests of backup samples, allowing the IOC to open disciplinary cases.
Ramzi was the first gold medalist from Beijing caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
He gave Bahrain its first Olympic track and field gold medal with victory in the 1,500 in 3 minutes, 32.94 seconds.
Rebellin finished second behind Spain’s Samuel Sanchez in the Olympic road race.
Tsoumeleka, who won the Olympic 20K walk gold in 2004, Perisic and Schumacher did not medal.
A sixth athlete initially was found positive in the retesting process. But the Dominican Olympic Committee cleared women’s weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras last month after her “B” sample came back negative.
The IOC previously disqualified nine athletes for doping at the Beijing Games.
They included Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska who was stripped of her silver medal, and North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su whose silver and bronze medals were revoked.