OpenChess

Another lack of comprehension (either English or juridicial):

Rebel wrote:[...] What pissed off many is the whole procedure from the beginning to the end. The ICGA is a FIDE affiliated organization and are not even allowed to punish more than 3 years to begin with. An organization that punishes when someone break their rules but break the FIDE rules themselves they signed for.

3.2 Anyone acting in contravention of this code can be excluded from participation in all FIDE tournaments or from specific types of tournaments for a period of up to 3 years. Weight shall be given to the type of violation and to any previous violations in decided upon the length of the exclusion period.

Contrary to the interpretation given by Mr. Schröder, this rule limits the amount of ban the FIDE Ethics Commission can itself impose on persons (see 1.4 for what a "person" is) -- it says nothing about what penalties affiliated organisations might enforce against their own members. Note that FIDE decisions must be acknowledged by subsidiaries (A.1.2.4), while it is not true that (say) the German chess federation must accept internal disciplinary measures promulgated by the French.

To evince one obvious case here, Bobby Fischer was expelled by the USCF (a member federation) in 2001 (partially rescinded later). More recently, Susan Polgar (along with Paul Truong) received the same punishment. Such a penalty is specifically enumerated in the USCF Code of Ethics (8e):

(e) Expulsion. Expulsion is a determination that a member has committed an offense warranting permanent abrogation of all membership rights and privileges. An expelled member may be readmitted to membership only by the USCF Executive Board or by the USCF Board of Delegates.

As for cheating, Feller and Marzolo received (up to) 5-year bans from the FFE for cheating, while Umakant received 10 years from the Indian federation. Both of these again contradict the idea that affiliated organisations (or member federations) are not allowed to punish for more than 3 years. Furthermore, FIDE itself has banned persons "indefinitely" (that is, until the problem is resolved), most recently in Jan 2010 when the Peruvian National team was banned from international competition until 7800 euros in FIDE membership dues was paid (which was done within a couple of weeks).