Two swollen faces, and many questions. Four months after his resounding release at first instance, judo coach Alain Schmitt is on appeal in Paris on Friday for domestic violence accused by Olympic champion Margaux Pinot.
What first appeared as a classic case of domestic violence in a home in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), judged late at night in immediate appearance at the Bobigny court, turned out to be a much more opaque case. than expected, which has taken on unexpected media coverage and societal coloring.
In an extremely sensitive time about violence against women, the judicial release of the former member of the France team (who denies having hit his partner), followed by the publication by Margaux Pinot of a photo of his bruised head in a cry of rage on social networks, caused a scandal at the end of last year.
For days, the ex-lovers repeated the trial multiple times through press conferences and TV shows. Sports and political personalities, such as Teddy Riner or Roxana Maracineanu, have publicly supported the 27-year-old young woman, gold medalist at the last Olympic Games with the mixed French team and suddenly propelled into an emblematic victim of unpunished domestic violence.
However, in this case, the two protagonists, who each had multiple bruises, offer with the same aplomb totally contradictory versions of the events of the night of November 28, 2021.
Alain Schmitt, 43, did he hit Margaux Pinot with his fists when he came home tipsy from the evening, his companion having only defended himself, as she says? Or did Margaux Pinot pounce on him in an argument and bump into each other across the apartment in a clinch as he tries to calm her down, as he claims ?
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“As sensitive as the subject of domestic violence is, it cannot lead to a presumption of guilt which is not provided for by law”considered the Bobigny court in its judgment of November 30 consulted by AFP, considering the evidence insufficient to convict Alain Schmitt.
Because, according to the trial judges, “the objective elements, as well as the lesions observed on one and the other, the traces of struggle observed in the apartment” indeed accredit both the story of Margaux Pinot and that of the defendant. The prosecution, which had requested a conviction, appealed.
Associated on the tatamis of the Étoile Sportive du Blanc-Mesnil by a coach-athlete relationship, Alain Schmitt and Margaux Pinot had also had a secret and checkered romance in the city for several years.
The night of the events, the bronze medalist at the 2013 Worlds (-81 kg) was about to take a plane to Israel. He was leaving to train the Israeli women’s team, a position he said he had taken to leave the Blanc-Mesnil club and thus flee a romantic relationship described as toxic.
After a drink with friends, he joined the judoka in her apartment. Around 2 a.m., the couple argued, came to blows.
The Israeli federation ends its collaboration
Injured, in panties, Margaux Pinot rushed to a neighbor’s house, reporting that her companion was preparing to leave. “kill”. Called, the police arrested Alain Schmitt, the torn t-shirt, who was boarding an Uber.
“My client approaches Friday’s hearing extremely calmly, he is very confident and calm”, told AFP his lawyer Caroline Wassermann, stressing that Alain Schmitt “never changed his speech” from the beginning. Margaux Pinot’s counsel, Me Rachid Madid, indicated that the sportswoman and himself would not speak before the trial.
Following this case, the Israeli Judo Federation ended its planned collaboration with Alain Schmitt. The latter now trains the men’s and women’s national teams of Bulgaria.
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