As reported on krikya360.com on Wednesday, former IBF World Middleweight champion, Australian boxer 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 judgment that the decision by the German Boxing Commission to ban Soliman from fighting for nine months and to disqualify Soliman from the fight he won against Felix Sturm in Dusseldorf in 2013 is 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 judgment.

“The German Court agreed that I was punished without judicial basis for something that I was not guilty of,” Soliman said. “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,” Soliman said.

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

Commenting on the BDB’s handling of the Felix Sturm/Soliman fight in 2013, Soliman’s manager, David Stanley said: “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. There was and is a deep conflict of interest for the BDB.”

Soliman’s German lawer, Rainer Cherkeh said: “Sports associations have a large responsibility to act in accordance with the main principles and rules of law. 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, Cherkeh said.”