The Federal Court justified the cancellation of the suspension of Chinese swimmer Sun Yang because the impartiality of one of the judges of the Court of Arbitration for Sport was questionable on the basis of tweets condemning the slaughter of dogs.
Chinese swimming icon Sun Yang was suspended for destroying a sample with a hammer during an unannounced doping control.
AFP
The Federal Court published on Friday the reasons which led it to cancel in December the suspension of Chinese swimmer Sun Yang: one of the judges of the Court of Arbitration for Sport violently committed against the slaughter of dogs in China.
In its recitals, the 1st Court of Civil Law indicates that the Chinese athlete invoked tweets from the president of the arbitration panel, the Roman judge Franco Frattini, to request his disqualification. Sun Yang judged that these comments in favor of the protection of animals were “unacceptable to Chinese nationals” and likely to question the impartiality of the magistrate.
Holdback
If an arbitrator can defend his convictions on social networks, he must do so with the restraint expected from judges, said the Federal Court. In this case, Franco Frattini denounced a Chinese practice of slaughtering dogs and consuming their meat during a local festival in China.
Some expressions referred to the skin color of the Chinese. In addition, the judge made these remarks after his appointment as president of the arbitration panel, underlines the high court. In these conditions, doubts as to its impartiality are well founded and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will have to rule again in another composition.
On February 28, 2020, the CAS announced the eight-year suspension of Sun Yang, Chinese swimming icon, after the destruction with hammer blows of a sample during an unannounced doping control in September 2018.
This suspension of the Chinese was one of the most spectacular decisions of the CAS, due to his severity and the status of the swimmer, three-time Olympic champion and superstar in his country. The athlete, already tested positive for a stimulant in 2014, immediately appealed against this suspension to civil justice. (judgment 4A_318 / 2020 of December 22, 2020)
Posted: 01/15.2021, 12:00 PM-
