The almost terrifying image has circled the globe. You see the French Olympic champion, one of the stars of judo in her country, Margaux Pinot, with a velvet eye and several bruises on his face. It is the witness of a sexist aggression, which the athlete reported having suffered by his partner, ex-judge and former coach of the French judo team, Alain schmitt. Pinot filed a complaint on Sunday, November 28th. On Tuesday, in a speedy trial, the Bobigny Correctional Court, northeast of the outskirts of Paris, 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 to social media this frightening image of his face, which has gone around the world, in which he appears with a disfigured face and remains of blood. Pinot, 27, is one of the best French judokas. This summer, in Tokyo, he won the gold medal in the mixed team event, apart from another bronze in the under 70 kilos category and having been two-time European champion. “My teammate has made a slanderous defense of what happened,” said the athlete. What was missing? Maybe death. Judo has saved me but I think of those women who can’t say the same as me.
She herself explained the assault she suffered on the morning of November 28 at her home. “I was insulted, beaten. My head hit the ground several times and finally tried to strangle me. I immediately thought I would die. However, I managed to escape and was able to take refuge with my neighbors, who called the police. I suffer several injuries. I have a broken nose. And justice has decided to release him. Pinot she has had to interrupt her workouts and will not recover until at least two weeks from now.
The alleged assailant wanted to get out of the way of the accusations, not only in the courts, where he made the “slanderous” defense denounced by Pinot, but through the newspaper ‘L’Équipe’. “The Court must be respected. I’m fed up with slander because I thought that after sentencing 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 travel to Israel, where he has just been appointed judo coach. Schmitt he appeared in the French sports newspaper with a velvet eye and added that the relationship with his partner “was complicated”. “She doesn’t know how to control her emotions. He told me he was a coward. She has a conflict with herself. He claimed that it was his partner who started the fight.
Schmitt He is 38 years old and the prosecutor in charge of the case was requesting a year in prison as he was found guilty of “very serious” assault on Pinot. The judge ruled that there was “not enough evidence of guilt.” And he added, with the consequent controversy in France: “A court is never there to tell who is telling the truth and who is lying.” The arguments of Schmitt, the “slanderous defense”, according to Pinot, it was alleged that the athlete jumped on him and there was a fight in which they both collided with the wall and a radiator in the house. He warned that he had never assaulted anyone. In the trial, Pinot he explained that his partner hid the relationship and that he often verbally abused her with derogatory comments regarding his sporting career. “He told me he wouldn’t get anywhere.” It all started when they went to bed. “I lay in bed with my fingers to 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.
Roxana Maracineanu, Chief Sports Officer, and former Sydney 2000 Swimming Medalist, came out in defense of Pinot. “For me, it’s clearly the victim of what happened.” Teddy Riner, triple Olympic champion with gold in London, Rio and Tokyo, and Clarisse Agbégnénou, with two gold medals in Tokyo, supported his teammate. “What needs to be done to make the victims heard? Every day women, children or the most vulnerable face violence, whether physical or moral. It is intolerable. It is necessary to better accompany and protect the victims … It is a matter of life or death “, he requested Riner.
“I have no words to express everything that goes on in my head and my woman’s body in the face of what has happened to my partner Margaux Pinot. Even more surprised by the Court’s decision. What does it take for sanctions to fall, dead? ”He wrote Agbégnénou on his Twitter account.
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