Switzerland On January 15, local time, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued a press release stating that due to bias and discrimination by an arbitrator on the International Court of Arbitration for Sports arbitration panel, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court decided to revoke the International Court of Arbitration for Sports’ decision against China. Swimmer Sun Yang's eight-year ban from competition requires the International Court of Arbitration for Sport to form a new arbitration panel to make a new ruling.
On December 24 last year, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued a press release announcing the revocation of the ban imposed on Sun Yang by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the reason was not announced. This communiqué is the first time that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has announced the reasons for revoking the above judgment.
On February 28, 2020, Sun Yang was suspended for eight years by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport due to doping violations. Sun Yang appealed this decision to the Swiss Supreme Federal Court. The communiqué shows that Sun Yang pointed out in his appeal application that an article he noticed on the Internet platform in mid-May 2020 showed that Frattini, the chairman of the arbitration panel in the CAS case, was biased and discriminate. The content of this article contains a series of remarks made by Frattini on his personal social media platform between 2018 and 2019 on animal protection, in which he used discriminatory language against the Chinese.
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that Sun Yang’s investigation evidence was in compliance with the regulations and valid. After investigating the relevant remarks, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court found that there were obvious problems with a series of violent statements made by the chairman of the arbitration panel, some of which clearly pointed to the skin color of the Chinese people. Moreover, some of the problematic statements were even made after he had been appointed chairman of the Sun Yang case arbitration panel. Therefore, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court supported Sun Yang’s challenge to the impartiality of the chairman of the arbitration panel and revoked the suspension decision of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport needs to re-establish an arbitration panel to hear the case and make a ruling.
