Prosecutor calls for Ramadan to be jailed for rape
Published: Tuesday, May 28th 2024, 18:40
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On Tuesday, the Geneva public prosecutor's office demanded a three-year prison sentence for Tariq Ramadan, 18 months of which must be served. It considers the Islamic scholar guilty of raping a woman in a hotel room in Geneva in October 2008.
According to the first public prosecutor, Adrian Holloway, the 58-year-old plaintiff testified constantly and consistently throughout the proceedings. Her account proved to be credible and detailed in contrast to that of Ramadan, said the representative of the public prosecutor's office.
Certainly there were these loving messages that the plaintiff had sent to the Islamic scholar after the crime, he said. In his opinion, however, these words were proof of the power that Ramadan had gained over his victim after the night with him.
Holloway assessed Ramadan's "misconduct" as "serious". The Islamic scholar had used the aura he had on this woman to abuse her, treat her like an object, beat her without restraint, with the sole aim of satisfying his sexual desire, the prosecutor continued. He spoke of "an act bordering on aggravated rape".
No doubts about the crime
There are only two possible versions in this case, said Robert Assaël, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, at the beginning of his plea. "Either the victim suffered a cruel rape or she is lying". For the lawyer, there is no doubt that the plaintiff was brutally attacked that night in October 2008.
The lawyer bases his certainty on the numerous details provided by his client. For example, the ironing board that was installed in the hotel room or certain lewd remarks that the Islamic scholar is said to have made to his victim, he said.
Witnesses summoned
On Tuesday morning, the Criminal Chamber of Appeal and Review heard several witnesses. Among them was a show producer who testified at the request of the plaintiff. Between 2006 and 2016, this man of Senegalese origin looked after Dieudonné, among others, when the controversial French comedian performed in French-speaking Switzerland.
This witness is suspected of having initiated an anonymous letter that reached the Geneva judiciary shortly before the trial at first instance against Ramadan in May 2023. The letter stated that the plaintiff had told Dieudonné about a "one-night stand" with Ramadan.
The show producer denied being the author of this letter. He claimed to know the woman. She had come into the dressing rooms at the end of the performances and offered her help with the organization, he explained. "As for her relationship with Ramadan, I think she was dating him or something," he said.
Plaintiff defends itself
When the plaintiff took the floor at the end of the testimony, she rejected the show producer's statements. "I never told anyone that I went out with Tariq Ramadan," she emphasized, referring to a complaint pending before the Geneva courts.
Her lawyer, Robert Assaël, asked the court not to take the show producer's statement into account. This man was lying when he claimed not to be the author of the anonymous letter. Moreover, it is impossible to know the deeper motives that prompted him to make these late revelations.
In the first instance, the first public prosecutor, Adrian Holloway, had demanded the same sentence for the Islamic scholar, namely a three-year prison sentence, half of which was to be suspended. The Geneva Criminal Court acquitted Ramandan in May last year. The trial will continue on Wednesday.
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