In Paris, the police detained 26-year-old Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova. For a double error in filing, she was suspected of contract play at the match in the Roland Garros tournament in 2020. After interrogation, the athlete, who is convinced of her innocence, was released. Details of this story – in an interview with a Kommersant correspondent in France Alexey Tarkhanov told the tennis player’s defender, member of the Paris Bar Association Frederick Belo.
– Why did the story with the allegedly intentional loss at Roland Garros a year ago become known only now and how could this lead to the arrest of a Russian tennis player?
– Yana Sizikova herself learned about her much earlier. In 2020, after taking part in a game at Roland Garros, she saw the sports blog of an Italian. She was accused of deliberately succumbing to rivals, and questioned her honesty and fairness of the results. As is always the case with blogs, this was supplemented by a discussion on social networks for several days. Yana is an experienced athlete, but such scandals have never directly concerned her. What was she to do? She wrote to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA. – “B”) and tried to explain the situation. She asked what to do. The WTA did not respond to her emails. Yana waited, then again turned to the WTA, and then to the tennis anti-corruption organization Tennis Integrity Unit. There was no clear answer, then life went into its own rut. Unaware that a case was being brought against her, she returned to France and played in the Saint-Malo tournament, then the Lyon tournament, and then again participated in Roland Garros. Usually her father accompanies her to tournaments, but this time, since travel restrictions were imposed due to the pandemic, she came alone. On Thursday evening, after another match, the police came to her with a request to “answer a few questions.”
– Where exactly was she detained?
– Just in the tennis town of Roland Garros. Yana followed the police, who put her in the car, where there was already an interpreter. They took her away, and she quickly realized that it was clearly not a matter of “a few questions.” The policemen, when they arrived at the commissariat, announced to her that she was detained. Since the case was in the evening, she was waiting for interrogation until the morning in a pre-trial detention cell.
Frederic Belo lawyer
Photo: Alexey Tarkhanov, Kommersant
– Was she able to contact her family?
– She was allowed to make a call – to her parents, family, relatives or boss – as it should be according to the procedure of detention. She called her father and told him, in particular, that she did not want an appointed attorney, although she was entitled to one. Yana believed that she had nothing to reproach herself with.
She spent the night at the precinct, did not sleep or eat. It was a shocking situation for her. Professional repeat offenders can easily spend the night at the police station, but for honest people it is always a huge stress.
– Where exactly did her interrogations take place?
– In the prefecture of the Haute-de-Seine department in Nanterre. There is based a special unit that investigates fraud in sports – the Central Service for Horse Racing, Races and Games (Service central des courses et jeux, SCCJ.— “B”). Investigators began interrogating Yana Sizikova under the supervision of the republic’s prosecutor. During these interrogations, which took most of the day, she showed that she did not agree with the match-fixing version. Investigators had 24 hours to get evidence, and the very next evening the police, after consulting with the prosecutor, released her. They announced the end of her preliminary detention, returned her passport, and since, I hope, they understood that she was innocent, they finally said: “You know, it was just a conversation”.
– So she “just talked” for 24 hours with the police, day and night?
“No, they didn’t interrogate her at night, this requires special urgency. But this is clearly calculated to make you more talkative after a night at the police station.
– In such situations, is it possible at all to prove guilt, except for your own confessions?
“They didn’t find any evidence — neither with her, nor in her hotel room. They took her mobile phone and tablet for examination. If there was something that accused her or, conversely, justified, the police would have evidence. But judging by what she told me, nothing of the kind happened.
She was not approached by bookmakers, intermediaries, or anyone else. Her name surfaced on the Internet, and then the police decided to check it out.
– But it could have been done without detention?
– Probably, but as a lawyer, I know that there is nothing out of the ordinary in the very fact of pre-trial detention. Every day in France, many people are in pretrial detention. This is not a prison, not a punishment, this is a legal regime of investigation that simply implies that you do not have the right to leave freely without answering questions.
– What is your role in this matter?
– The father of Yana Sizikova turned to me. I was recommended to him by my colleagues in Moscow, as well as by the Russian embassy in France. It is clear that Yana’s family was extremely worried. The whole day we were in touch with the criminal police, trying to figure out what could be accused of Yana, and then we began to understand that the more time passes, the more chances that she will be released. We were promised “tomorrow morning”, then everything turned into “tonight”, finally we were told that she was released. I’m glad she didn’t have to stay one more night in Nanterre Prefecture.
– Have you finally met your client? What advice did you give her?
“She was still very excited last night. Yana feels all this as a huge injustice, she is full of desire to fight for her honor and her reputation. I asked her to rest and sleep – “I’ll think about it tomorrow”, as the heroine of “Gone with the Wind” said. Now, I think we will file a libel complaint.
– Against who?
– Against an unknown person, as we say, “against X”, because we do not know who is accusing her. But it is obvious that this is slander and defamation.
The charges were very serious – “sports corruption” and “fraud in an organized group.” This threatens with imprisonment for a term of five to ten years and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros.
Today we will talk with Yana and her family, because the opinion of the family is very important to her.
– Corruption in sports, however, exists, as does the connection with sports betting. Didn’t Yana know about such cases?
– So you can’t lose a tennis match without being accused? Shouldn’t fatigue, nerves, bad luck be allowed? If every time after a double serve error, the player ends up in a provisional detention, what would it be like? I play tennis myself, I understand the tension on the court, and I think the situation is deeply unfair.
Some blogger will say your name, and a year later you may be in danger without suspecting anything.
Yana, of course, should have sued last year. It is a pity that she limited herself to letters to the WTA, but she could not even imagine such a continuation.
– In that supposedly fixed match, Yana Sizikova played in pairs. At the same time, her partner, American Madison Brengle, is not accused of anything?
– While I do not know.
According to French press reports, 26-year-old Yana Sizikova was detained by the police on June 3 at about 9 pm in the Roland Garros sports town immediately after the Russian woman lost a doubles match. The police came for her after the massage.
She was taken to the prefecture of Nanterra (Haut-de-Seine) on suspicion of deliberate loss on September 30, 2020, when Yana Sizikova and her American partner Madison Brengle lost to Romanians Andrea Miet and Patricia Maria Teague.
Doubts about the fairness of the game were caused by a surge in betting bets on the victory of Romanians. As the source of the sports publication L’Equipe assures, “abnormally high” sums were put on the outcome of the game, about “several tens of thousands of euros”. This happened simultaneously in several countries, which, according to the investigation, required an appropriate organization.
The Liberation newspaper recalls that since July 2019, the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) has been conducting a major investigation into the case of sports corruption, conspiracy and money laundering. The case, initiated in Belgium, affects seven countries (Bulgaria, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United States and Belgium). Investigators believe that this is a “criminal group of immigrants from Eastern Europe, which operates in Belgium and specializes in tennis matches.” At the head of this alleged network is a certain Grigor S., a 28-year-old Belgian of Armenian descent nicknamed Maestro. But not a word is said about what relation the Russian tennis player could have to this case.
.