Dieudonné called to the rescue to defend Tariq Ramadan? The defense of the Islamologist, who has been appearing since Monday in Geneva for rape – which he denies – summoned the controversial humorist Dieudonné to come and testify on Tuesday, on the second day of the trial in this 15-year-old case. The complainant, present in the room during all the proceedings on Monday, must also speak on Tuesday for the first time before the criminal court, where this case attracted the French press and the crowd.
Converted to Islam, the Swiss complainant, who chose the assumed name of “Brigitte” to protect herself from threats, was in her forties at the material time. She assures that the Islamologist subjected her to brutal sexual acts accompanied by beatings and insults, on the evening of October 28, 2008, in a hotel room in Geneva. She filed a complaint in 2018.
Dieudonné would have received the confidences of the victim
The defense wished to have Dieudonné, a relative of the complainant, testify, because his name appears in an anonymous letter received by the court. He would have collected the secrets of “Brigitte” concerning a relationship agreed with Tariq Ramadan. “He will contribute to the manifestation of the truth,” Dieudonné’s lawyer, Emmanuel Ludot, told AFP.
“To bring Dieudonné as a witness based on an anonymous letter which came 15 days before this hearing in a file which has existed for 5 years, which is neither dated nor signed and of which we do not know who wrote it, c It’s a pathetic process that says a lot about the fact that Ramadan is running out of arguments, ”the plaintiff’s lawyer, François Zimeray, told reporters.
Tariq Ramadan said on Monday that he wanted to “fight” against “lies and manipulation”. The Swiss intellectual, charismatic and contested figure of European Islam, faces between two and ten years in prison. The judgment is expected on May 24. In France, the 60-year-old Islamologist is suspected of rape committed between 2009 and 2016 on four women, a case which triggered his fall in 2017.