By STEPHEN WILSON

AP Sports Writer

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) The hearing for the Olympic figure skating scandal begins amid legal wrangling and the likelihood this case will drag on for some time.

The French skating judge and French federation chief at the heart of the controversy threatened to appeal to the courts, while two key American witnesses pressed for the removal of the U.S. representative from the hearing on grounds she had prejudged the case in favor of the French.

The hearing before the International Skating Union council is set for Monday and Tuesday.

Judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne and French skating boss Didier Gailhaguet were called before the council to answer charges they manipulated the result of the pairs competition at the Salt Lake City Games.

Le Gougne was suspended indefinitely by the ISU for alleged misconduct after initially declaring she was instructed by Gailhaguet to vote for the victorious Russian pair ahead of the Canadians.

Le Gougne later retracted the accusation against Gailhaguet, saying she was in emotional distress at the time and had been harassed by ISU officials into making false claims against him.

The ISU awarded duplicate gold medals to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier on the premise of Le Gougne's alleged misconduct. Witnesses said she broke down in a meeting after the event and said she had voted for Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze under pressure from Gailhaguet.

Le Gougne insists she's a "scapegoat" and voted for the Russians in good conscience. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Le Gougne said a male Canadian judge approached her an hour before the pairs event and asked for help with Sale and Pelletier.

Asked what that meant, Le Gougne said, "Help him to have the Canadian couple earn the first place."

She is seeking reinstatement and says she will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the ISU rules against her.

Gailhaguet said Sunday he would go to court - possibly the European Court for Human Rights - if he's not cleared.

"We will go to the end to defend our rights and the reputation of our federation," Gailhaguet told The Associated Press.

Gailhaguet, who also is an ISU Council member, said he was the target of a plot within the world federation led by British and North American interests.

"If you want to kill a dog, you say it has rabies," he said. "But watch out, the dog can turn into a wolf. I will not be done in by Anglo-Saxon lobbying."

Other French judges have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Gailhaguet of pressuring them. One, Gilles Vandenbroeck, told "60 Minutes" he was expelled by the federation when he made his accusations several years ago.

"Probably Marie-Reine, after her first testimony in Salt Lake City thought of cases like mine, and thought, `If I go on attacking Didier Gailhaguet, what am I facing?"' said Vandenbroeck, a judge for 15 years. So it's perfectly understandable that she'd change her mind."

Meanwhile, referee Ron Pfenning and Jon Jackson, a skating judge who testified that he witnessed a confession of vote-fixing by Le Gougne, asked the ISU council to bar U.S. member Claire Ferguson from the hearing.

According to Pfenning and Jackson, Ferguson told them last month at the world championships in Japan that, though she had not yet seen evidence gathered by ISU investigators, she believed Gailhaguet acted the same way dozens of other federation chiefs have in the past.

According to Pfenning and Jackson, Ferguson felt that Le Gougne and Gailhaguet should not be punished or should receive only light penalties.

A brief sent to the ISU by Pfenning's and Jackson's attorney also cites a recent TV interview in which Ferguson said she thought the Russians deserved to win and "it is probably correct that (Le Gougne) judged the way she felt it should be, not the way someone told her it should be."

Ferguson and other ISU council members would not take calls by the AP. The hotel where the council members are staying has been instructed by the ISU not to put through any calls from the media.

ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta on Sunday refused to comment on the hearing, which is described as confidential.

Le Gougne's lawyers asked for a long list of witnesses but said the ISU has not granted that request, leading to charges the hearing is biased.

"There are only witnesses for the prosecution and not for the defense," Gailhaguet said. "Objectively, you don't judge on the atmosphere surrounding the case. You judge on the facts."

In a separate interview in the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday, Gailhaguet said, "I've concluded that I will never again attend international competitions in the United States without a lawyer. What happened at the Olympic Games has left me with a thirst for revenge."

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