French Judo President Nomis stunned by release of Schmitt

The president of the French Judo Federation Stéphane Nomis was totally blasted away by the tragic news about Olympic gold medallist Margaux Pinot. "We were stunned" by the release of judo coach Alain Schmitt of domestic violence against Olympic champion Margaux Pinot, Stéphane Nomis told AFP.

"We did not understand and we were stunned, we took a knockout by the decision," said Nomis.

Believing "not to have enough evidence of guilt" of violence by the former member of the French judo team on his companion this weekend in Seine-Saint-Denis, the Bobigny criminal court released Alain Schmitt in an immediate appearance hearing the day before.

"It's been a day that I try to understand. I do not understand how we can say that there is an absence of evidence, estimated the leader. I do not have the whole file, but when we see his condition , I find it hard to understand that anyone can say no evidence. "

A few hours after the release, the Bobigny prosecutor's office announced to AFP to appeal.

"For the common people, absence of evidence by seeing the head of Margaux, it is incomprehensible", insisted Nomis, who explains that the federation has accompanied Margaux Pinot since Sunday. "My first reaction was to meet her quickly. I saw her condition, it was very hard, I was in shock to see her in this state," he said.

"We discussed for two hours at the federation" and "straight away, we took charge of Margaux to help her (...), we did our best to accompany her until the hearing, and during, "he continued.

"We will obviously be very, very attentive to the final decision, it will have our support, the opinion is with it, the federation is with it", added the president of the federation.