She was “afraid to die. “Behind a pseudonym chosen to protect herself from threats, “Brigitte” spoke on Tuesday, on the second day of the trial in Geneva of Tariq Ramadan whom she accuses of rape. In a calm and very sure voice, she told her version of that night of October 28, 2008 in a hotel in Geneva.
She remembers having been “afraid of dying following the blows received in the head, at several times”, as well as of “choking”, in the courtroom of the Swiss criminal court. “Brigitte” assures that the Islamologist subjected her to brutal sexual acts accompanied by beatings and insults. She filed a complaint in 2018. From this trial she is waiting to be “recognized as a victim of Tariq Ramadan and, she adds in tears, “that I draw a line”. 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. The trial is due to end on Wednesday.
Dieudonné in support of Tariq Ramadan
Unexpected support for the Islamologist came from Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, a French humorist convicted of racial slurs and incitement to hatred, with whom the complainant collaborated as an artistic agent. His name appears in an anonymous letter recently received by the Swiss judges.
To the magistrates, Dieudonné explained that he had collected, in the presence of other people, the confidences of “Brigitte” about her relationship with Tariq Ramadan. He assures us that she had spoken of a “one-night stand or something like that”, without mentioning violence. “I believe in the innocence” of Tariq Ramadan, asserted Dieudonné. The complainant gave another version of this meeting: Dieudonné “asked her if the story with Tariq Ramadan was true; and I said yes” and “there were no other confidences”.
Tariq Ramadan disputes this version
In the courtroom, “Brigitte” is separated from Tariq Ramadan by a screen so as not to have to see him during this trial. She said she met the Islamologist at a book signing in Geneva a few months before the events, then saw him again at a conference in September in the same city, where Tariq Ramadan is from. There followed an increasingly intimate correspondence on social networks.
Tariq Ramadan claims that he did not tell the complainant that he was in Geneva on the evening of the incident and maintains that it was she who offered him a coffee and invited herself to his hotel room. He admits having kissed her, before ending the relationship. According to the indictment, however, he was guilty of “rape three times” on the same night and “sexual coercion”. “I was unconscious for long periods of time,” the complainant assured on Tuesday. When the president of the court pointed out to her that she had not had any sores, she said that afterward she had “her face on fire” and could no longer see well. After that night, she met several times with a psychiatrist to talk about what she had suffered.