Tariq Ramadan’s defense again pleads for acquittal
Published: Wednesday, May 29th 2024, 18:00
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The appeal trial against Tariq Ramadan, who is accused of rape and sexual assault in Geneva, came to an end on Wednesday with the closing arguments. His defense again demanded an acquittal.
The 61-year-old Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been charged in Geneva with the rape and sexual assault of a 58-year-old woman. In the first instance, Ramadan was somewhat surprisingly acquitted.
Both the plaintiff and the Geneva public prosecutor's office appealed against this verdict. The public prosecutor's office considers Ramadan guilty of raping the woman in a hotel room in Geneva in October 2008. As in the first instance, they demanded a three-year prison sentence, half of which is to be suspended.
According to the Geneva public prosecutor's office, the plaintiff testified constantly and consistently throughout the proceedings. In contrast to Ramadan, her account proved to be credible and detailed.
In contrast, Ramadan also maintained his innocence in the appeal proceedings. In her closing statement on Wednesday, his defense lawyer Yaël Hayat again demanded that Ramadan be acquitted, as was the case in the first instance.
For Ramadan's defense lawyer, the case is not about a brutal rape, but about the story of a rejected woman who was deeply hurt. The plaintiff had in fact admired Ramadan, otherwise she would not have sent him a message like the following the day after the alleged night of horror: "I dream of kissing you and would have liked you to trust me". These words did not fit the charge, said the defense lawyer.
Plaintiff's lawyer recognizes a pattern
For her part, the plaintiff's lawyer argued that there was sufficient evidence to conclude that Tariq Ramadan was guilty of rape. The Islamic scholar is accused of the same crime by several women in France, recalled Véronique Fontana.
The "modus operandi" was always the same in all these cases - like a signature. All the women were raped in a hotel room in the most brutal way, always accompanied by blows, slaps and insults. The rape in Geneva corresponds exactly to this pattern.
Ramadan is the grandson of the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan el-Banna. His father Said fled to Switzerland in 1954. Tariq Ramadan taught at several schools in Geneva between 1984 and 2004.
It was not clear on Wednesday when the verdict will be opened.
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