Joshua Sherurcij – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RIS_2009_017.jpg
A new twist in the case of Tariq Ramadan (photo). On Tuesday July 12, Paris prosecutors called for a jury trial for the Swiss Islamic scholar suspected of rapes he allegedly committed against four women between 2009 and 2016, Le Parisien reports. The 59-year-old had initially denied having extramarital sex before admitting to “dominance relationships” that were rough but “consensual”, the regional newspaper recalls. According to his lawyers, the plaintiffs claimed rape due to “sentimental or sexual disappointments” or a political conspiracy, which their client had made an issue of long before.
It all started in October 2017 with the complaints of Henda Ayari, a former Salafist turned secular activist, and a woman known as “Christelle”. Both had each reported a rape that allegedly took place in Paris in 2012 and another in Lyon in 2009, Le Parisien further reports. As a reminder, between February 2018 and October 2020, Tariq Ramadan had been consecutively charged with rape against these first two complainants, as well as three other potential victims. He had subsequently been imprisoned for ten months. Two of the alleged victims were identified by law enforcement authorities from photos and messages found on the Islamist’s computer. A third victim – the former escort girl Mounia Rabbouj – had accused Tariq Ramadan of committing nine rapes between 2013 and 2014.
“Despite the defendant’s repeated denials, the forensic investigation has revealed numerous incriminating evidence against Tariq Ramadan,” the prosecution said in its applications on Tuesday. Therefore, he requested a trial in the jury court for the rape of Henda Ayari, “Christelle”, Mounia Rabbouj and one of the two women identified in the photos, the newspaper remarked. The latter had spoken at a hearing in 2019 of a “consensual” physical relationship, but also of a “moral rape”. However, at the end of June 2021, she had withdrawn her complaint in a letter to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The prosecution confirmed on Tuesday that it had “filed a final indictment seeking the indictment of the person concerned in the jury court for the rape of three complainants and the rape of another person by a complainant none other than ‘Christelle’.” In their applications, the prosecution also stated that the judicial investigations “did not lead to the actual occurrence of a conspiracy as denounced by Tariq Ramadan”, but rather “a shared awareness that enabled individuals to have the courage to report the incidents of which they were victims”. The final decision on a trial is a matter for the two investigating judges who have been assigned to the case.
Deport him
After he spends life in prison