The FIA has hit back at "the selective leaking of extracts" from Flavio Briatore's statements in his case against the governing body.
Governing body also rejects claims made by former Renault team boss
The FIA has hit back at "the selective leaking of extracts" from Flavio Briatore's statements to the Parisian courts in his case against world motorsport's governing body.
The former Renault team principal is
seeking to have his lifelong ban from Formula One and all FIA-endorsed motor racing activities lifted as well as €1m in compensation for damage to his reputation.
On Thursday,
The Guardian published extracts of Briatore's statements to the courts, in which he accuses former FIA president Max Mosley of being "clearly blinded by an excessive desire for personal revenge".
According to the leak, Briatore will also claim the FIA did not have grounds to issue him with the ban, and that the extent of Mosley's role in the World Motor Sport Council's decision breached European laws concerning fair trials.
The FIA later responded to the leak with a statement condemning it and claiming the allegations made by Briatore are not true.
"The FIA condemns the selective leaking of extracts from Mr Briatore's pleadings to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris," the statement read.
"The FIA rejects the allegations made in these leaks and confirms that the decision to impose a sanction against Mr Briatore was made by an overwhelming majority of the attending World Motor Sport Council members.
"In respect for the authority of the French Court, it would be entirely inappropriate for the FIA to comment further on this matter in advance of the hearing."
Briatore's hearing against the FIA is scheduled for 24 November and will be heard by France's high court, the Tribunal de Grande Instance.
He received the ban after the WMSC decided he and Renault's former executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, had ordered driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash during last year's Singapore Grand Prix to benefit team-mate Fernando Alonso.
