Switzerland’s appeals court held sexual misconduct in Tariq Ramadan’s case on Tuesday (Sep 10) and convicted him of rape and sexual coercion in a case dating back to 15 years ago, reversing a prior acquittal of the lower court.
The appeals court stated that it “overturns the verdict of 24 May 2023” and condemned Ramadan to three years’ imprisonment, two of which are suspended. The court’s verdict was first announced by the public broadcaster Public Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).
Ramadan, 62, was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University and has also had visiting positions at two universities in Qatar and one in Morocco.
A news report from the AFP news stated that the alleged accuser, a proselyte now identified simply as “Brigitte,” told the court that Ramadan forced her to have overriding sexual intercourse with him at a hotel in Geneva on October 28, 2008.
The lawyer representing Brigitte said she was raped severally and was abused in the worst manner by “being subjected to torture and barbarism.”
The woman was in her prime of forty-something years at the time of the rape, as was alleged. She made the complaint in September 2018 and said she was prompted to speak out after previous complaints had been made against the 62-year-old Islamic scholar in France.
Ramadan maintains his innocence.
The accused, Ramadan, has however denied any involvement in the case. Ramadan pointed out that, being a freewheeling sort of woman, Brigitte had offered to join him upstairs. He would let her kiss him, he said, only to run away as soon as he could from the situation.
The 62-year-old emphasized that he had become an object of a trap.
Some include the rape accusations made against boys and men in France.
In France, he is accused of raping three women in 2016, 2014, and 2009. He had to withdraw from Oxford University in 2017 when rape allegations came out in France.
Some of the victims include French activist Henda Ayari. On October 3, 2017, Ayari reported to the prosecutor’s office of Rouen that the Islamic scholar raped her in a hotel in Paris.
