Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan sentenced on appeal in Switzerland for rape to three years in prison, one of which is firm, one year after his acquittal

Acquitted at first instance, Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan was sentenced on appeal in Switzerland for rape and sexual coercion to a three-year prison sentence, including one year in prison, the Geneva court announced on Tuesday, September 10.

In a press release, she announced that she “Annuls the judgment of the criminal court of May 24, 2023, finding Tariq Ramadan guilty of rape and sexual coercion for almost all of the facts reported”.

After this acquittal, the complainant, who goes by the name “Brigitte” to protect herself from threats, immediately appealed.

Complaint filed in 2018

She claims that Mr. Ramadan subjected her to brutal sexual acts accompanied by blows and insults in the room of the Geneva hotel where he was staying, on the night of October 28, 2008. “Brigitte” filed a complaint ten years after the events, in 2018, encouraged, she explained, by the fact that other women had done the same against Tariq Ramadan in France.

Both agree that they spent the night together in the hotel room, which she left early in the morning to return home. Tariq Ramadan assures that it was she who invited herself into his room.

He said he let himself be kissed before quickly ending the exchange. A version denied by “Brigitte”, who recounted during the hearing in the first instance having had “fear of dying” under the blows of the Islamologist.

In France, the Paris Court of Appeal decided on June 27 to refer the 61-year-old Swiss Islamologist to the departmental criminal court for the rapes of three women, allegedly committed between 2009 and 2016. However, a dismissal was pronounced concerning the facts reported by a fourth woman – rapes allegedly taking place during 2013.