French cheating case: GUILTY

[BB+]

This appeared a couple of days ago, the ban having ended on May 1. http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... eller.html

Following the expiration of the ban imposed by the Ethics Commission and the return of the Prize Fund and Gold Medal by GM Feller, FIDE confirms that GM Feller can now participate in FIDE rated events.

Previously a week ago: https://www.fide.com/component/content/ ... eller.html

Dear Mr. Feller
We refer to the decision made that you should hand back the prize money and the medal you received from the 2010 Chess Olympiad. This you have not done and at the Presidential Board held in Chengdu April 27th 2015, it was decided that should you not send the money and the medal back by the 7th of May 2015, that proceedings will be taken against you.
Meanwhile, your suspension will remain in place until a final decision has been made.

It is unclear [to me] what Feller's current status is with the French chess federation (due to legal battles).

[syzygy]

That is interestinng. It is contrary to the French Court ruling?

The EC considered it had jurisdiction on the basis of a report received from the FIDE Executive Director following a decison by the FIDE Presidential Board. It therefore did not have to consider whether it would have had jurisdiction on the basis of a request received from the French Federation to extend the sanctions imposed by the disciplinary committee of the French Federation, which at that time had been suspended by the Versailles Court.

One could call this an easy way out.

The procedural defects in the French proceedings probably could not have played a role in the FIDE proceedings, since the FIDE proceedings were separate anyway. Or at least they were separate once based on the report received from the FIDE Executive Director. It would seem to be different if they had been simply on the question whether to extend the French sanctions to FIDE level (possibly without a review of the correctness of imposing those sanctions).

addendum:
The EC judgment in fact explains that procedural defects in the French proceedings can play no role:

In any case the EC has the power to review the facts and the law and to rule the case ex novo, for this reason the assumed procedural violations by the FF during the disciplinary case are not relevant (for a similar conclusion concerning CAS see Arbitration CAS 2007/A/1396 & 1402 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) v. Alejandro Valverde & Real Federación Española de Ciclismo (RFEC), award of 31 May 2010, and CAS 2009/A/1920 FK Pobeda, Aleksandar Zabrcanec, Nikolce Zdraveski v/ UEFA, “the procedural deficiencies which affected the procedures before (national) disciplinary bodies may be cured by virtue of the present arbitration proceedings”) and there is no reason to wait the end of the civil case to know if the FF disciplinary decisions will be confirmed or not.

This of course only works if the review is ex novo.

Do we know if Feller has sued FIDE?

[syzygy]

Do we know if Feller has sued FIDE?

According to Wikipedia he did:

Le 29 juin 2011, la Cour d'appel de Versailles a suspendu les sanctions à leur encontre dans l'attente d'un jugement au fond se prononçant sur la légalité de cette sanction.

La commission d'éthique de la Fédération internationale des échecs a, par un jugement du 1er juillet 2012, déclaré Sébastien Feller coupable de triche durant les Olympiades de Khanty-Mansiïsk, une compétition officielle (violation du paragraphe 2.2.5 du code d'éthique de la FIDE) et l'a, en conséquence, condamné à une exclusion de tout tournoi homologué par la FIDE pour une durée de 2 ans et 9 mois, à compter du 1er août 2012. Par une ordonnance du 9 août 2012, le juge des référés du Tribunal de grande instance de Versailles l'a débouté de sa demande de suspension de la sanction prononcée par la FIDE. Cette décision a été confirmée par la Cour d'appel de Versailles dans un arrêt du 21 novembre 2012.

So he sued again in two instance to get the FIDE suspension suspended, again in Versaillies. This time he failed in both instances.

It seems he did not sue FIDE, but the French Chess Federation:
Ordonnance de référé du 9 août 2012
Arrêt contradictoire du 21 novembre 2012
This appears not to be a (straight) continuation of the earlier case, as the disciplinary measures imposed by FIDE are mentioned explicitly.

The FCF unsurprisingly argued that FIDE decides who gets to play in FIDE competitions, and that the FCF was obliged to respect FIDE's decisions (or could be excluded by FIDE etc.). It also argued that the EC decision could only be contested before the CAS (within 21 days from its notification).

The first-instance court noted that in view of the earlier judgment by the court of appeal the two players were already authorised to play tournaments organised by the FCF (which is interesting, as that seems to imply that the FCF is told to ignore the FIDE sanction). The court could not examine the allegations against FIDE, because FIDE was not being sued.

The appeal court made a point of the fact that the players could have lodged an appeal with the CAS, so that they cannot complain about a denial of access to court. It further noted that the FCF is obliged to respect FIDE decisions and that its refusal to allow Feller and Hauchard to participate in the (FIDE-approved) French championship from 13 to 25 August 2012 was not a new sanction imposed by the FCF, but the result of the FIDE decision. The appeal court further states that the FCF is only obliged to let the players enter events not approved by FIDE (thereby correcting the first-instance decision).