LEGAL representative Emir Crowne has criticised Jamaican Judo Association (JJA) for how it has handled disciplinary procedures for judoka Ebony Drysdale-Daley.

Drysdale-Daley, who was not allowed to compete in a scheduled Olympic Games qualifying event, alleged that the JJA had been guilty of discriminatory and unfair behaviour towards her as it regards selection for Olympic qualifying tournaments.

The JJA however released a press statement where it defended its decision not to select her.

“The decision to exclude Ebony from the upcoming qualifying event was solely based on her consistent failure to comply with deadlines and her repeated attempts to circumvent the processes established by the JJA for efficient management of competition entries,” the statement said.

JJA then suspended Drysdale-Daley indefinitely for what it says are breaches of its code of ethics and by-laws related to actions bringing the association into disrepute.

However, in this press release the JJA also breached Drysdale-Daley’s privacy by publicly disclosing her drug-testing status, which violates the World Anti-Doping Agency’s own Code of Ethics.

Crowne says the JJA acted “wildly, wildly irresponsible” in doing this.

“I don’t know how else to put it,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Friday. “Somehow, the Jamaican Judo Association thought it fit and appropriate to publicly disclose that the athlete has two whereabouts failures so far.”

For an athlete to violate WADA’s anti-doping codes that individual would need to have three whereabouts violations within a 12-month period. This would be equated to a failed drug test. But as Drysdale-Daley has not had three violations, she has not breached any rules — and Crowne argues this means she must enjoy the protection of confidentiality until such a breach occurs.

“But the Jamaican Judo Association, in their eagerness to smear the reputation of an athlete, has breached all protocols, all standards of confidentiality, and I would encourage the athlete and bodies that supervise the Jamaican Judo Association — like the Jamaica Olympic Association, the international judo body, or JADCO [Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission] or WADA — someone needs to sanction the conduct of the Jamaican Judo Association.

“Quite ironically, the Jamaican Judo Association, in attempting to paint the athlete in a negative light, has now painted itself in a negative light through this breach of confidence, and it should not go unpunished.”

Crowne questions the timing of the suspension and says it is a distraction from JJA’s confidentiality breach. He also mentioned that the JJA did not allow Drysdale-Daley to exercise her right to due process as no hearing between both parties took place before the sanction.

“It has apparently suspended the athlete without any right to be heard, without any right to present arguments or a defence or an explanation,” he said. “So, the very federation that complains about the athlete’s conduct now finds itself in a situation where its own conduct should come under scrutiny.

“First it breaches the confidentiality of the athlete in terms of the anti-doping process, and now it purports to suspend the athlete without any right to be heard, without any independent panel being appointed, or any sort of due process or natural justice. If anything, it is the federation that needs to take a hard look in the mirror about the way it’s conducting itself because, quite frankly, the federation is behaving abhorrently.”

Drysdale-Daley became Jamaica’s first Olympic judoka at the Tokyo Games in 2021.