Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan is on trial before the Paris departmental criminal court for raping four women, a judicial source said, confirming other sources close to the case.
Tariq Ramadan will therefore be tried for rapes committed between 2009 and 2016, according to the indictment order of which AFP has knowledge. A decision of partial dismissal was also rendered concerning two complainants.
Facts denied by the accused
“Attempting to refer a person to a trial court while the Court of Cassation is seized of a motion for nullity concerning the central point of this file is inadmissible”, reacted directly Maîtres Philippe Ohayon, Ouadie Elhamamouchi and Nabila Asmane, three lawyers from Switzerland. The defense of Tariq Ramadan has indeed lodged an appeal in cassation after the validation on May 11 by the Paris Court of Appeal of capital psychiatric expertise, which it disputed. “This umpteenth passage in force is a terrible admission of weakness,” they added.
At the end of May, the speaker, who was also accused in Switzerland by a woman in a case dating back to 2008, was acquitted of the charge of rape and sexual coercion by a Geneva court which ruled that there was no evidence against him.
Me Laure Heinich, who defends three women in the case investigated in Paris, including two with Me Laura Ben Kemoun, indicated that her clients were delighted “with this decision and the obviously very meticulous work done” by the magistrates. Me Ben Kemoun added that the complainants were “relieved and ready for the future”. In this emblematic file of the #MeToo era, Tariq Ramadan, 60, first denied having had extramarital sexual relations before acknowledging “relationships of domination”, rough but “consensual”.