A judge releases the judo coach and partner of the victim, Alain Schmitt, due to lack of evidence
The almost terrifying image has been around the world. You see the French Olympic champion, one of the judo stars of her country, Margaux Pinot, with a black eye and various bruises on his face. It is the testimony of a sexist aggression, which the athlete reported having suffered from her partner, a former judoka and former coach of the French judo team, Alain schmitt. Pinot filed a complaint on Sunday, November 28. On Tuesday, in a speedy trial, the Bobigny Correctional Court, northeast of the Paris periphery, acquitted the alleged assailant for lack of evidence.
Margoux Pinot He did not want the aggression suffered to be forgotten, which is why he uploaded that horrible image of his face to social networks, the one that has gone around the world, in which he appears with a disfigured face and traces of blood. Pinot, 27, is one of the best French judokas. This summer, in Tokyo, she won the gold medal in the mixed team event, apart from another bronze in the category of less than 70 kilos and having been European champion on two occasions. “My partner has made a slanderous defense of what happened,” explained the athlete. What was missing? Maybe death. Judo has saved me but I think of those women who cannot say the same as me ”.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, I was the victim of an assault at my home by my companion and trainer.
I was insulted, punched,
my head was hit on the ground several times. And finally strangled. pic.twitter.com/Ghbwg8NVQy– Margaux Pinot (@ MargauxPinot2) December 1, 2021
She herself recounted the assault she suffered in the early morning of November 28 at her home. “I was insulted, beaten. My head hit the ground several times and eventually he tried to strangle me. I immediately thought I was going to die. However, I managed to escape and was able to take refuge with my neighbors who called the police. I suffer various injuries. I have a broken nose. And the Justice has decided to release him ”. Pinot she has had to interrupt her workouts and will not be recovered for at least two weeks.
The alleged aggressor wanted to face the accusations, not only in the courts, where he made the “slanderous” defense denounced by Pinot, but through the newspaper ‘L’Équipe’. “You have to respect the Court. I am fed up with the slander because I believed that after the sentence they would leave me alone. I receive messages of intimidation and death threats ”. According to his version, the night of the assault on his partner he was about to leave for Israel, where he has just been appointed judo coach. Schmitt appeared in the French sports newspaper with a black eye and added that the relationship with his partner “was complicated.” “She doesn’t know how to control emotions. He told me he was a coward. She has a conflict with herself ”. He maintained that it was his partner who started the fight.
I do not have the words to express everything that is going on in my head and my body as a woman in the face of what my teammate Margaux Pinot has gone through.
All the more shocked by the court’s decision. What does it take for the sanctions to fall, death? https://t.co/gITdlNxmLs– AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@ Gnougnou25) December 1, 2021
Schmitt He is 38 years old and the prosecutor who took charge of the case requested a year in prison, considering him guilty of the “very serious” assault on Pinot. The judge decided that there was “not enough evidence of guilt.” And he added, with the ensuing controversy in France: “A court is never there to say who is telling the truth and who is lying.” Schmitt, the “slanderous defense”, according to PinotThey were based on the fact that the athlete jumped on him and the fight occurred in which both collided with the wall and a radiator in the house. He warned that he has never assaulted anyone. Pinot She explained that her partner was hiding the relationship and often verbally abused her with derogatory comments regarding her sports career. “He told me that I would not get anywhere.” It all started when they went to sleep. “I lay with my fingers in my ears so as not to hear it. And then the blows began ”. Pinot He added that on other occasions he had already destroyed the apartment they shared.
We are all deeply touched by what our teammate Margaux Pinot has just suffered and we give her our full support. What must be done to ensure that victims are heard? That the attackers be convicted? https://t.co/xzxgPViDFb
— Teddy Riner (@teddyriner) December 1, 2021
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Roxana Maracineanu, Deputy Minister of Sports, and former Sydney 2000 swimming medalist, came out in defense of Pinot. “For me, clearly, he is the victim of what happened.” Teddy Riner, triple Olympic champion with golds in London, Rio and Tokyo, and Clarisse Agbégnénou, with two gold medals in Tokyo, they backed their teammate. “What must be done so that the victims are heard? Every day women, children or the most vulnerable face violence, be it physical or moral. It is intolerable. We must better accompany and protect the victims … It is a matter of life and death, “he requested. Riner.
“I have no words to express everything that goes through my head and my woman’s body in the face of what my partner has gone through Margaux Pinot. All the more surprised by the Court’s decision. What does it take for the sanctions to drop, death? ”He wrote Agbégnénou on his Twitter account.
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