Believing "not to have enough evidence of guilt" of violence by the former member of the French judo team on his partner at the weekend in the Paris region, the Bobigny criminal court released Alain Schmitt.

At the trial, the prosecution had denounced "very serious violence, even for a first-time offender", on the part of Alain Schmitt, and requested against him a one-year suspended sentence.

After the release, he announced to appeal.

In a message of support to her colleague in the France team, the female star of French judo Clarisse Agbégnénou said she was "shocked" by the court decision.

"I do not have the words to express everything that is going on in my head and my body as a woman in the face of what my teammate Margaux Pinot has suffered," tweeted the flag bearer of the French delegation at the Olympics from Tokyo.

"We are all deeply touched by what our teammate Margaux Pinot has just suffered," added three-time Olympic champion Teddy Riner a few minutes later.

Alain Schmitt, 38, was arrested in a state of intoxication on the night of Saturday to Sunday a few hours before his scheduled departure for Israel, where he is expected to take the reins of the women's national team.

Margaux Pinot accuses her companion and former trainer within the Etoile Sportive club of Blanc-Mesnil in Seine-Saint-Denis of having beaten her, pulled her hair but also of having tried to strangle her during an altercation in the apartment of the young woman of 27 years.

Margaux Pinot from France wins the bronze medal at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo on August 29, 2019 CHARLY TRIBALLEAU AFP / Archives

Suffering from bruises and a broken nose, she was prescribed ten days of temporary absence from work (ITT).

- Conflicting versions -

On Wednesday, the gold medalist in Tokyo with the France team, in the new mixed team event, spoke for the first time on social networks.

"What is their slanderous defense worth against my injuries, and the blood strewn on the floor of my apartment? What was missing? Death at the end, perhaps?", She protested, posting a photo of his swollen face, which seems taken soon after the fact.

Tuesday's hearing was marked by conflicting versions.

Also presenting a bruised face, Alain Schmitt, bronze medalist at the 2013 Worlds (-81 kg), denied "100%" the facts with which he was accused.

At the bar, he denied having dealt the slightest blow to his companion, instead describing a fight between lovers as a "tornado", based on judo holds and triggered by Margaux Pinot.

"It was not a judo fight, it was punches," protested the judo at the bar.

The French, gold medalist Loïc Pietri (l) and bronze medalist Alain Schmitt, during the IJF world judo championship, in Rio de Janeiro, August 29, 2013 YASUYOSHI CHIBA AFP / Archives

The individual record of Margaux Pinot, who fought in two categories (-63 and -70 kg), notably includes a world bronze medal in 2019, two titles of European champion (2019 and 2020) and two silver medals. continental (2017, 2021).

© 2021 AFP