The trial of Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan for alleged rapes against three women committed in France between 2009 and 2016 commenced this Monday, March 2, before the departmental criminal court in Paris. Ramadan, 63, who contests the charges, was not present at the opening of the hearing as he is reportedly hospitalized in Switzerland.
Ramadan’s Absence and Potential Postponement
Mr. Ramadan, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, did not appear in court on Monday morning, having been hospitalized since Saturday in Geneva. His lawyer, Me Marie Burguburu, requested a postponement of the trial so that he could be in a condition to appear. She explained that her client, despite being under judicial supervision prohibiting him from leaving France without informing the French justice system, lives near the Swiss border and has been visiting his 93-year-old mother in Geneva for months. He was hospitalized during one of these trips.
The court president noted that the judicial supervision imposed on Mr. Ramadan also required him to reside in Saint-Denis, near Paris, and not on the Franco-Swiss border. “We understand that the idea is to evade the debate that must start today,” declared Me David-Olivier Kaminski, lawyer for Henda Ayari, one of the civil parties.
Victims’ Accounts and Legal Proceedings
One of the alleged victims, identified as Christelle (a pseudonym), will request a closed-door hearing to protect her identity and avoid reliving the harassment and threats she experienced during the judicial investigation. Her lawyers, Mes Laura Ben Kemoun and Laure Heinich, stated that this trial, occurring after more than eight years of difficult procedure and over sixteen years after the events, represents a long-awaited culmination and a crucial moment for their client. “This trial is neither a conspiracy nor a political battle, but the sadly ordinary story of the rape of three women under duress,” summarized Me Sarah Mauger-Poliak, lawyer for Henda Ayari.
Following several procedural twists, the Paris Court of Appeal in June 2024 ordered a trial against the controversial figure of European Islam for rapes against three women: an aggravated rape, with violence and against a vulnerable person, committed against Christelle in Lyon in October 2009; another rape that allegedly occurred in 2012 in Paris against Henda Ayari, a former Salafist who became a secular activist and initiated the case by filing a complaint in October 2017; and another against a third woman, dating back to 2016.
The “Grip” Concept and Violence
Initially, the investigating judges had also referred him to trial for rapes against a fourth woman, Mounia Rabbouj. However, Ramadan appealed, and the Court of Appeal ultimately dismissed her case. It also rejected the notion of “grip” (emprise) that had permeated the file until then, judging that this concept, “in the sense of a stratagem leading to the necessarily total deprivation of free will,” could not be retained at any stage of the relationship between Tariq Ramadan and the civil parties. For the Court of Appeal, it is instead “violence that is primarily highlighted in the different accounts” of the victims. The plaintiffs indeed described particularly brutal sexual relations, summarized by the investigating judges in their order as: “the hand that holds and forces the head, the arm that prevents movement or turning, the weight of the body, the crazy look, the words of domination and submission, the orders, the gestures, this attitude to impose penetration.”
Ramadan’s Defense and Previous Conviction
Tariq Ramadan initially denied having sexual relations with these women, then admitted in mid-2018 to the existence of adulterous relationships, marked by “domination,” harsh but “consensual” – a major turning point in this case. The intellectual has multiplied procedural offensives to demand a resumption of investigations and to postpone the trial, arguing that he possesses new expertises that he claims prove his innocence.
His lawyers, Mes Marie Burguburu, Sarah May Vogelhut, Nabila Asmane, and Ouadie Elhamamouchi, argue that “the obstinacy of the judicial authority to maintain the hearing on the initially scheduled dates does not seem to allow for a fair trial.” They highlighted that over the past year, their client had filed “no less than five requests to introduce essential new elements,” but had met with the “silence” of the criminal court president. They also asserted that their client suffers from multiple sclerosis and is “not in a condition to appear without danger to his health.”
In Switzerland, after being acquitted in the first instance, Tariq Ramadan was sentenced on appeal in September 2024 to three years in prison, including one year firm, for the rape of a woman on the night of October 28-29, 2008, in a Geneva hotel. He has announced his intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and has also filed a request for a review of the trial, which is currently being processed by the Geneva justice system.
The trial in Paris is expected to run until March 27. Ramadan faces up to twenty years in prison if convicted.
