The prominent Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been acquitted of charges of rape and sexual coercion filed in Switzerland. He remains on probation in France, facing trial for other rape charges.
The court in Geneva ruled Wednesday there was not enough proof to convict Ramadan for raping and holding a Swiss woman against her will in a Geneva hotel room in 2008.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of three years in prison for Ramadan, who denied the accusations, saying he had accepted an invitation to coffee by the plaintiff, who then invited herself to his hotel room.
During the trial, Ramadan admitted to the court that he had spent the night with her, but that he had only let himself be kissed and that they had no sexual relations.
The plaintiff, a convert to Islam, who has been using the pseudonym Brigitte, because she has faced threats before, told the court that Ramadan beat her and brutally assaulted her three times
The court said it found Brigitte's testimony consistent and detailed, but there was no material evidence to back it up, and testimony gathered during the investigation came ten years after the fact, and could have been confused.
Brigitte filed her case in 2018, saying she was too frightened to make a legal complaint at the time of the attack ten years before, but she was inspired by other women who had come forward with rape allegations against Ramadan in France.
The judges highlighted the "elevated risk of confusion" linked to the amount of time that had gone by but also by the media coverage of this case and the charges in France.
The court also said that the controversial, anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonné Mbala Mbala, who was called by Ramadan's lawyers to testify on his behalf, did not add any relevant elements to determining whether or not a sexual assault had taken place.
During the trial the two were separated by a screen – at her request. Brigitte left before the end of the verdict on Wednesday.
Ramadan will receive about 151,000 Swiss Francs (154,400 euros) from the state of Geneva to cover legal expenses.
The plaintiff is filing an appeal against the acquittal.
Rape charges in France
The case was the first of what could be several trials for Ramadan, who faces charges in France of raping four women between 2009 and 2016.
Ramadan has denied all the accusations, and has said they are politically motivated.
The grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, Hassan al-Banna, Ramadan was once considered a leading figure in Islamic thought in Europe, condemning terrorism and criticizing many Muslim countries for their lack of democracy.
The rape allegations ended his career, with Britain’s Oxford University forcing him to take a leave of absence in November 2017.
He spent nine months in pre-trial detention in France, and was released on probation in November 2018. He was granted permission to cross the border into Switzerland for the trial in Geneva.
(with newswires)
