TARIQ RAMADAN. Will a firm prison sentence be pronounced this Wednesday, May 24, 2023 against the Islamologist? Accused of rape, he could end up behind bars given the requisitions.
Tariq Ramadan will soon be fixed on his fate. After a week of waiting since the last day of his trial for rape in Geneva, the Islamologist will know, this Wednesday, May 24, 2023, the decision taken by the court. At 60, this very controversial figure of Islam in Europe could go to prison. If it were to follow the requisitions of the prosecutor, the jurisdiction of the second largest city in Switzerland would condemn the sexagenarian to three years in prison, including 18 months firm. In this case, Tariq Ramadan would be forced to go behind bars: in Switzerland, the adjustment of sentences with an electronic bracelet is only possible for sentences of one year firm at most.
For the prosecutor, the rape and sexual coercion were proven with regard to “the credibility, the constancy and the coherence” of the complainant’s remarks, which allow, according to him, to determine that Tariq Ramadan “attacked with violence to the integrity of his victim, acted to satisfy his sexual pleasure, with regard to a woman treated as an object, and never showed the slightest awareness of his fault, rejecting on the contrary all guilt. “
A line vehemently contested by the defense of Tariq Ramadan. Her lawyer called for caution in the face of the “sacredness of the word of the victims”, denounced the “contradictions” and “approximations” of the complainant’s account, affirming that the woman who accuses her client linked up with others women accusing the respondent in France for similar facts. The acquittal was requested by the defence. The cleaver should fall around 11 a.m.
Understanding the accusation of rape against Tariq Ramadan in Switzerland
The Islamologist Tariq Ramadan, whose trial opened on Monday May 15, is accused by a woman of a rape, which was allegedly committed fifteen years ago in a hotel in Geneva. The man is therefore judged in this city. On the first day of the trial, he spoke out and tried to discredit the complainant, a Swiss woman who calls herself Brigitte (this is an assumed name) and who wears a wig to conceal her identity. The Muslim preacher is indicted in other similar cases in France. In these cases, he has also served preventive prison time.
The trial of Tariq Ramadan, which has just opened, has some surprises in store since Dieudonné was called to testify in court by the preacher’s defense. Dieudonné will be heard as a witness on Tuesday, May 16. Two weeks earlier, an anonymous letter arrived at the Geneva court. The sender claims that Brigitte told him about her night in detail, in the presence of Dieudonné, reports Point. During this exchange, the complainant would not have described rape, but rather a “one-night stand”, according to Me Guerric Canonica, lawyer for Tariq Ramadan.
“She used to tell me that I was sexy and that she loved me”
Accused of wanting to “play the clock” (the facts will be prescribed in October 2023), the theologian assured that he wanted to be acquitted on the expected date of the verdict, May 24. “I am here to answer because I want justice to be done,” he said in the preamble. Because in his eyes, “the complainant’s primary objective was my moral fall.” An introduction following which the 60-year-old Swiss unfolded his story. With a line of conduct: for him, “there was no sexual relationship.”
The respondent has, throughout the hearing, rejected the charges against him as a whole, bringing in turn towards the alleged victim. “She was the one watching me on social media. She sent me 40 messages before she saw me on the night of the incident. She told me I was sexy and that she loved me. She was the one who offered me a coffee”, he lists, while the origin of the case is based on a coffee proposal made by Tariq Ramadan to this woman. It was October 28, 2008. Initially, the complainant and the respondent had met at a book signing, before seeing each other again at a conference. This is how the contact was established between the two.
“I rejected her”
A third meeting therefore takes place in a café in Geneva. The discussion drags on into the evening, to the point that the two are turned away by the receptionist. This is where the versions differ. The exchange would have continued in the hotel room where Tariq Ramadan resides, near the cafe. His accuser claims to have then been raped, when he denies everything: “if there had been a fight in this room, it would have been heard.” And to add: “If I had had a sexual relationship with the Swiss complainant, with what is known today about my practices, why would I deny it?”
Over the course of his answers, Tariq Ramadan claimed to have been “trapped”, saying that the account of the Swiss woman stuck to the accounts of his other accusers in France. “What made me agree to meet her is that she is seductive, intelligent. […] It’s a woman who writes to a man: ‘I love you, I like you'”, he explained, presenting the accuser as “a woman in love, who will feel rejected.” in any case, affirms it: “I rejected it.”
A speech that did not convince the prosecutor. “We are not harassed by twenty Facebook messages. He could ignore them” and adds that “it is Tariq Ramadan who asks the question: ‘What would you like?’, who asks: ‘Is it that you miss me?’. The unsaid is clear. He knows from there that a sexual relationship is possible.”