A systematized mechanism of influence on the part of Tariq Ramadan on his victims: this is what three psychiatric experts found who examined several of the five women who filed a complaint against the Islamologist for rape. franceinfo was able to consult these expert reports on Friday April 29, added to the file at the very end of the investigation, closed during the month after four years of investigations.
The three experts, including the renowned Daniel Zagury, identified a repetitive pattern on the part of Tariq Ramadan to build and profit from a hold on these women, who are all admirers to begin with. They evoke “breaking into another person’s psyche to control their behavior, […] exercise all power in the relationship and this without taking into account the desire of the other”. This mechanism is reminiscent of that of the gurus.
Thus, the experts noted commonalities between the stories of several complainants. Each time, the religious begins by “hook” these women on social networks. All are in admiration in front of him – even venerate him – and have sent him a message, for example to wish him a happy new year. This is followed by innocuous exchanges, then more intimate ones. Young women are flattered and feel valued by the attention given to them by the public man. They gladly accept a meeting, which each time represents a shock and a turning point in the relationship.
Indeed, where these women hope for an affective or romantic relationship and perhaps even sexual pleasure, they all report an immediate sexual relationship, after just a few minutes. This is described as ultra-violent, brutal and humiliating. The women say they have experienced it as non-consensual but do not manage to oppose it. This relationship often creates trauma.
Tarif Ramadan claims that the complainants are lying and denounces a conspiracy. While he had initially denied any sexual relationship with the complainants, he admitted during his pre-trial detention that he had indeed had relations with these women but that they were consenting. He relies in his statements on the fact that the complainants continued to exchange messages with him after the reports which are the subject of the legal proceedings. One of them even saw him several times.
However, according to the three psychiatric experts, this ambivalence of the victims is precisely part of the mechanism of psychic hold and domination. “You don’t tear down the statue of an idol in a day. You don’t transform an absolute hero into a villain in a few hours”, they say. The complainants justify the continuation of the exchanges by the desire not to provoke new violence or threats on the part of the Islamologist or the hope of an evolution of the relationship towards something more normal, less violent.
Tariq Ramadan’s lawyers castigate these documents and deplore the fact that the Islamologist was not heard by the doctors who assessed the complainants. “When you read the file, the previous or later SMS [aux relations sexuelles], the photos that some send of themselves, we say to ourselves: how can there have been rape? How can we consider that we have been raped and somewhere – if you allow me the expression – to return there?”, annoys master Pascal Garbarini, one of the five councils of the Islamologist. He further assures that “the sexual game scenario […] had been announced” to women, thus ruling out the possibility of “surprise”.
Can the influence established by the psychiatric experts be considered as a constraint, which could make it possible to criminalize the offense of rape? It is the judges who will decide, whether or not to refer the case to an assize court in the coming months.