The former head of the French Federation of Ice Sports obtained 5,000 euros for the moral damage. He claimed 150,000, as well as 152,550 euros corresponding to the 27 months of compensation he would have affected, according to him, if he had been able to finish his mandate.
Le Monde
The former boss of French skating, Didier Gailhaguet, said, Friday, the State to pay him 5,000 euros for the moral damage for having “pressure” to obtain his resignation from the Federation early 2020 in because of a scandal of sexual violence within the discipline.
In this decision consulted on Monday 17 January by the France-Presse Agency, the Paris Administrative Court considers that the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, exerted a decisive pressure (…) “to bring it to resign, Preventing the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSCG) from “pronouncing freely on the subject”.
Fifteen days before his resignation, several old skaters, including Sarah Abitbol in his book “such a long silence”, had accused of rape and sexual assault their former coaches, including Gilles Beyer.
5,000 euros of moral prejudice
Didier Gailhaguet, who has presided over the FFSG since 1998 [with the exception of a parenthesis between 2004 and 2007] had been accused of maintaining the latter in the skating circuit, despite suspicions in 2000, which he defends itself.
The former President of the FFSG, who had first carried out a non-successable administrative appeal, then brought the case before the administrative court. He retained one of the arguments of the former boss of the FFSG, who felt that the minister, by public speeches, “interfered with the federation’s powers to impose his resignation while The terms of revocation of the President’s mandate are strictly defined in the statutes of the Federation and exclude any intervention of the State “.
Didier Gailhaguet claimed 152,550 euros corresponding to the 27 months of compensation he would have affected, according to him, if he had gone to the end of his mandate, as well as 150 000 euros of moral harm.
Justice gave him the first point, but granted him 5,000 euros of moral harm, believing that “his image and reputation [had] been reached” in particular because “the alleged facts were not Even established and could not be imputed to it “.
In a statement, his lawyers, M es William Bourdon and Brengarth, welcomed an “exceptional” decision which “sanctions the immixition of a Minister (…) for purely political purposes” . “It makes it unjustly violated in the ice sports community and more generally from the national sports movement”, according to them.
Following the revelations of Sarah Abitbol, the Ministry of Sports had diligently investigated the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR). His report scratched the functioning of the FFSG marked by “a high concentration of powers”, especially in the hands of Didier Gailhaguet, a source of a “form of omerta”.