LThe legal troubles are not over for Tariq Ramadan in Switzerland. In a judgment dated August 28, 2024, made public on Tuesday, September 10, the Criminal Appeal and Review Chamber of the Court of Justice overturned the judgment of the Criminal Court of May 24, 2023, finding him guilty of rape and sexual coercion for almost all of the facts reported.
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These dated back to the night of October 28-29, 2008. The complainant claimed to have suffered hours of violence and sexual coercion in a hotel room, after having followed Tariq Ramadan there of her own free will, whom she greatly admired.
In the first instance, the latter had raised many apparent contradictions in the attitude of the complainant, denouncing a late complaint, ten years after the facts, instrumentalized, according to him, by ideological adversaries. He had cited his wife in his defense, as well as the comedian Dieudonné.
A very combative defendant, a hesitant complainant
He appeared very combative and eloquent when faced with a complainant who appeared under the pseudonym of “Brigitte” and who had asked to be seated behind a screen during the hearings, to mitigate the confrontation with Tariq Ramadan.
The prosecutor had requested a three-year prison sentence, but the court did not follow him, pronouncing the acquittal requested by the defense. The criminal appeal and review chamber, for its part, held that “several testimonies, certificates, medical notes and opinions of private experts are consistent with the facts reported by the complainant. The evidence gathered by the investigation thus convinced the chamber of the defendant’s guilt.”
As a result, she sentenced Tariq Ramadan to a “three-year custodial sentence, without a one-year suspended sentence”. The judgment may be appealed, within 30 days, to the Federal Court. Contacted, Me François Zimmeray, “Brigitte’s” lawyer at first instance, welcomed this appeal decision. Tariq Ramadan’s defense was not immediately available to comment on this judgment.
