Flavio Briatore legal challenge to FIA ban

Flavio Briatore has launched a legal action at the Paris Tribunal de Grande to overturn his lifetime ban from FIA Motor Sport after the ‘Singapore-Gate’ scandal.

To be honest, it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s taken him this long to appeal the FIA’s decision to effectively ban him from any involvement in FIA Motor Sport.

Flavio Briatore will start legal proceedings in the Paris Tribunal de Grande tomorrow in an attempt to overturn the lifetime ban he received from the FIA for his part in the ‘Singapore-Gate’ race fixing episode, which saw Nelson Piquet Jnr intentionally crashing his car to allow team mate Fernando Alonso to take victory in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Briatore is claiming the life time ban from involvement in any FIA sanctioned Motor Sport – including driver management – is a legal absurdity. And he probably has a point. There must be innumerable EU laws covering restraint of trade and umpteen other arguments to support his case.

Appalling though the incident was, it has to be untenable to impose a sentence that has no end. There are also questions surrounding immunities the FIA gave out to those giving evidence.

The outline of the legal case is:

The FIA’s deliberate breach of the rights of the defence FIA including

• the delay in the issue of the summons
• the failure to state the charges in advance
• the lack of access provided to prosecution documents and to the key witness

Breach of the rules of natural justice including

• the lack of impartiality of the body passing judgment
• the secret negotiation of the decision content before the hearing; and
• the granting of selective immunities in order to build the prosecution’s case

The FIA’s manifest excess and abuse of power including

• the penalty imposed on a non-licensee of the FIA
• the disproportionate and illegal nature of an indefinite boycott decision; and
• the threat to refuse to renew the FIA licence in breach of the Federation’s regulations and of the International Sporting Code

Flavio Briatore intends to obtain an Order from the Court quashing the FIA’s decision insofar as it relates to him, together with an Order, subject to a penalty for non-compliance, requiring the Federation to withdraw any penalty imposed on him.

Should be an interesting battle.

Source: Crash.Net