ROME (AP) ― Former figure skating world champion Carolina Kostner faces a proposed lengthy ban in the doping case involving her former boyfriend and Olympic race walking gold medalist Alex Schwazer.

The Italian Olympic Committee’s antidoping prosecutor recommended that Kostner be banned for four years and three months ― longer than the 3 1/2-year ban that Schwazer is serving.

The request was made as part of a widespread doping inquiry set off when Schwazer tested positive for EPO before the 2012 London Games. Kostner’s lawyer said following a CONI hearing in September that the skater had nothing to do with Schwazer’s doping, but prosecutors believe she helped the walker avoid a drug test.

Giovanni Fontana, Kostner’s lawyer, would not comment Friday when contacted by the Associated Press, saying that he was still waiting to receive the prosecutor’s recommendation.

The case will now be decided by CONI’s internal doping court.

The 27-year-old Kostner, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and 2012 world champion, is taking this year off from competition but a long ban would rule her out of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and could end her career.

Schwazer, who won the 50-kilometer walk at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was excluded from the London Games after testing positive before the games.

The CONI prosecutor also recommended bans for three of the four members of the Italian squad that won the silver medal in the 4x100-meter relay at the 2010 European Athletics Championships: 27 months for Simone Collio, 24 months for Maurizio Checcucci and eight months for Roberto Donati.

Emanuele Di Gregorio was the fourth member of the relay squad that took second behind France at the event in Barcelona. Germany finished third.

The CONI case is based on input from a prosecutor in Bolzano investigating the Schwazer file, which has allegedly uncovered widespread doping within the Italian athletics federation.