In relation to corruption allegations, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has suspended Bosnian official Damjan Dejanovic.
According to the ITIA, Dejanovic is accused of violating the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme.
Since 8 January the national level official is suspended, he can no longer officiate or attend any professional tennis event. This includes contests sanctioned or authorised by ITIA or national associations.
ITIA didn’t disclose all the details, but referred to Section F.3.b.i.4 in the TACP. The ITIA states that the person is most likely to be guilty of a major offence which would compromise the integrity and reputation of tennis.
Dejanovic has not appealed the decision and will now serve the suspension provisional while the ITIA finishes its investigation.
ITIA suspends another week of service
Dejanovic has been the most recent individual suspended, although only temporarily.
The ITIA has banned Bulgarian official Stefan Milanov from the sport for 16 years. The ITIA banned Stefan Milanov for 16 years after finding him guilty of several corruption offenses in connection with five matches that he umpired during 2021.
Among the specific activities were manipulating scores data to allow anyone else to bet on an event.
In recent weeks, ITIA handed down a number of suspensions and bans for players who were involved in a criminal investigation into a larger match-fixing scandal in Belgium.
The collaboration between ITIA officials and Belgian authorities resulted in a sentence of five years’ imprisonment for Grigor Sargsyan, the syndicate leader. After Sargsyan was convicted in November, 16 initial players were banned.
Leny Mitchell, a French tennis player, has also been charged with recent crimes. After being found guilty for corruption and match fixing offences, he was given a 10-year ban.
Tunisian Anis Ghorbel, who was involved in the fixing of matches between 2016 and 2017, has also been banned from playing for three years. Ghorbel has denied all allegations. He achieved a high career singles world ranking of 479 for 2016 and denies any wrongdoing.
ITIA has not stated if Dejanovic suspension is related to the same incident.
