London, Dec.13 (ANI): Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, has rejected accusations that he presided over a dictatorship during his 16-year tenure, and claimed that Flavio Briatore was trying to “distract attention” from his “outrageous act of cheating” with his civil suit against the governing body. The Telegraph quoted Mosley as saying that Briatore ‘knew damn well he was guilty’ in the infamous ’spygate’ episode of 2007, which saw the FIA hand McLaren the largest fine in sporting history at 100 million dollars, as an example of the FIA’s judicial integrity.

Mosley claims he would have preferred to ban Lewis Hamilton’s team but was outvoted.

Former Renault team principal Briatore is trying to have his lifetime ban, for allegedly ordering Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash in Singapore last year, overturned in the French courts.

The Italian has accused Mosley of being “blinded by a desire for personal revenge” and has described September’s world council hearing as “a sham”.

Mosley said: “What he’s saying is that he was not given a proper trial, but he declined to turn up and declined to appeal. The fact is he knew damn well he was guilty. And so he goes to a French court, makes all sorts of allegations and tries to distract everybody’s attention.” (ANI)