Team Soliman wins case against Germany Boxing Commission

SAM Soliman has won a longstanding battle for justice against Germany’s Boxing Commission (BDB).

Today the German District Court in Kiel has pronounced a judgement that the decision made by the German Boxing Commission to ban Soliman from competing for nine months and to disqualify Soliman from the contest he won against Felix Sturm in Dusseldorf in 2013 as unlawful and therefore ineffective.

The BDB had wrongly claimed a violation of Anti-Doping Rules by Soliman and is now disabused by the German Civil Court. The BDB can appeal against this court decision within one month after notification of the judgement.

In their decision today, the German judges found that Soliman should not have been sanctioned as he had not used a forbidden substance, as was claimed by the BDB.

“The German Court agreed that I was punished without judicial basis for something that I was not guilty of,” said Soliman in a press release issued by his management. “The unlawful decision by the German Boxing Commission cost me a shot at a world title and immense reputational damage.”

“The decision by the German court has lifted a weight from my shoulders that I’ve had to live with for nearly four years. I was never going to give up seeking to right the injustice,”

“I’ve spent my whole career committed to clean and healthy living, and the German Boxing Commission’s unlawful decision hit hard.”

Soliman’s manager, David Stanley also commented on the BDB’s handling of the fight between Soliman and Sturm in 2013.

“It is obvious that a sport association whose President, Thomas Putz, has a commercial involvement with one participant of a boxing match is not objective,” said Stanley. “There was and is a deep conflict of interest for the BDB.”

Soliman’s German lawyer, Rainer Cherkeh was adamant his client was hard done by.

“Sports associations have a large responsibility to act in accordance with the main principles and rules of law,” concluded Cherkeh. “The court decision made clear that the BDB failed in this central point. Above all this is an important judgment for our client Sam Soliman and his reputation.”