Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan, accused by several women in Switzerland and France, was sentenced for the first time for the rape of a woman by the Geneva courts, to a three-year prison sentence, one of which was firm.
Acquitted by the criminal court at first instance, he was found “guilty of rape and sexual coercion” on the night of October 28 to 29, 2008 in a hotel in Geneva, by the criminal appeal and review chamber, the Geneva justice system said on Tuesday.
Mr. Ramadan was sentenced to “a custodial sentence of three years, without a one-year suspended sentence,” she added in a statement. The judgment was notified by mail to the parties because they had waived a public reading.
“Our client is of course relieved and understands what she had to endure for the truth to come out,” the Swiss lawyers for the plaintiff, M.e Veronique Fontana and Me Robert Assaël, affirming that “the truth has finally triumphed”.
“This decision was made at the cost of years of pain and hardship that the complainant went through with dignity. We have rarely experienced such a brutal procedure,” M.e François Zimeray, the French lawyer who represented her in the first instance.
The ruling, dated August 28, can be appealed within 30 days to the Federal Court, the Supreme Court of the Confederation.
“While the law should be clear and court decisions clear, all these contradictions […] “give a feeling of extreme precariousness,” reacted M.e Philippe Ohayon, one of the French lawyers of the Islamologist.
The appeal trial was held in Geneva at the end of May. The prosecutor had requested a three-year prison sentence, half of which would be firm, and had raised the notion of “control” exercised by Tariq Ramadan, 62, which he compared to “Stockholm syndrome” in the complainant.
Tariq Ramadan, a charismatic and controversial figure in European Islam, denies any sexual act and had pleaded for acquittal.
Converted to Islam, the plaintiff, “Brigitte”, who goes by this name to protect herself from threats, assured the judges that he had subjected her to brutal sexual acts accompanied by blows and insults in the room of the Geneva hotel where he was staying, on the night of October 28, 2008.
The complainant filed a complaint ten years after the events. According to the prosecution, it was the fact that women filed complaints in France in 2017 against the Islamologist that prompted “Brigitte” to do the same in Switzerland.
In France, Tariq Ramadan’s defense has filed an appeal against the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal to send him back to trial for the rapes of three women, allegedly committed between 2009 and 2016. The appeal is due to be heard in October.
“Several testimonies”
In May 2023, following a highly publicized first trial which took place in a very tense atmosphere, Tariq Ramadan was acquitted at first instance.
The judges of the Geneva Criminal Court had ruled that there was no evidence against him and highlighted the contradictory testimonies and the “love messages” sent by the complainant.
The three judges of the appeal and review chamber had a completely different assessment of the facts, this time holding “that several testimonies, certificates, medical notes and opinions of private experts are consistent with the facts reported by the complainant”, according to the Court of Justice.
“The evidence gathered by the investigation thus convinced the court of the defendant’s guilt,” the statement said.
The complainant had indicated during the investigation that she had met Tariq Ramadan at a book signing session a few months earlier. This was followed by an increasingly intimate correspondence on social networks.
The two protagonists claimed before the Geneva judges that they had spent the night together in the hotel room, which she had left early in the morning to return home. But their versions of the facts differ.
Tariq Ramadan claimed to have allowed himself to be kissed before ending the exchange and accused the complainant of wanting revenge for having been “rejected”.