The trial of the controversial preacher Abu Ramadan began on Monday at the regional court in Biel (Canton of Berne). The prosecution accuses him of racial discrimination and fraud.
The Libyan is defending himself against a conviction for racial discrimination and fraud. In court, he rejected the prosecution’s accusations.
According to the indictment, Abu Ramadan allegedly incited hatred against people on the basis of their religion or ethnicity as a lay preacher in the Ar’Rahman Mosque in Biel on July 7, 2017. He is said to have targeted Jews, Christians, Hindus, Russians and Shiites.
The 68-year-old Libyan criticised that only one of his sermons had been scrutinised and that individual passages had been taken out of context. In other sermons, for example, he had warned against the terrorist organisation “Islamic State”, but no one was talking about that.
Abu Ramadan is also accused of having unlawfully received social assistance in the amount of about 46,000 Swiss francs in his commune of residence, Nidau (Canton of Berne). He is said to have declared to the municipal authorities that he had no income and no assets. But at the same time, he had helped organise pilgrimages and had earned a concrete income.
Abu Ramadan replied that he did everything voluntarily and earned nothing from his services. There had been money flows between pilgrims, him and the travel organisers, but everything had been above board. In general, he had never received a salary for his religiously motivated activities and had also done his voluntary work in the mosque free of charge.
The pleas are still pending at the trial in Biel. If possible, the court will give its verdict in the early evening.
If convicted, Abu Ramadan faces deportation. He currently lives in Switzerland thanks to a temporary C permit. The federal authorities withdrew his asylum status in 2017 after he had repeatedly travelled to his home country Libya. One of his daughters, two brothers and a sister still live there.
He could not imagine a permanent return to Libya, said Abu Ramadan. There, he said, he was exposed to dangers from the supporters of the former ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi, who controlled parts of the country.
The last time he was in the capital Tripoli was a few months ago. That trip was difficult, he said, and at times his passport was taken from him.