Writing in the Sunday Telegraph this weekend, Mosley insisted that Briatore was given every opportunity to defend in the famous crash gate trial set up by the ruling body, and the only reason why he chose not to appear before the World Motor Sport Council was because he knew he was guilty of cheating.
“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,” Mosley wrote in the aforementioned publication.
In addition, Mosley argued that Briatore's legal actions against the FIA were not aimed at proving his innocence or clearing his name, but to “distract everybody's attention.”
“What it reminded me of was Saddam Hussein's PR man telling the world the Americans were in full retreat when you could just about see their tanks pulling up over his shoulder,” added Mosley, whom Briatore blamed for being behind his lifetime ban imposed by the FIA as a result of the crashgate.
While both Briatore and Renault's former chief of engineering Pat Symonds were involved in the crash saga, the Italian was the only one who got a lifetime ban from all FIA-sanctioned competitions, while Symonds only received 5 years away from motor racing. From those two, however, only Symonds admitted to his wrongdoings, while Briatore always claimed his innocence.
Lately, Symonds joined Briatore in his legal actions against the FIA, with several of his lawyers arguing that his coming forward was a result of FIA pressure rather than his own conscience.
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