Swiss supreme court details anti-China bias of Sun judge
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)GENEVA – The Swiss supreme court explained Friday why it has ordered a retrial for Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang in a doping case, citing anti-China bias related to killing dogs for food by one of the judges in the case. Hostile social media posts on Twitter by Court of Arbitration for Sport judge Franco Frattini persuaded the federal court he should not have presided over banning the Chinese swimmer. “In his tweets, the arbitrator (Frattini) castigates a Chinese practice of dog slaughter and denounces the consumption of this meat at a local festival in China,” the Swiss court said in a statement. After CAS published its verdict last February, Sun's lawyers appealed to the Swiss supreme court. The 10-hour hearing in Montreux, Switzerland, was a rare CAS case held in open court, at the three-time Olympic champion’s request, and streamed live online.
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At stake in a second CAS hearing would be Yang’s chance to compete at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics now set for July 2021. The Swiss court ruling appears to have swung on an objection by Sun’s lawyers to the chairman of the three-judge panel, former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini. It is even possible to overturn a CAS verdict in the federal court and still lose the re-trial. When Canas went to federal court, Swiss judges ruled his right to be heard had been breached and sent back the case. Immediately, Sun said he planned to appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which is Switzerland’s highest court.