Administrative Court Suspends Ban on Tariq Ramadan’s Literary Lunch in Nice

Tariq Ramadan’s literary lunch will indeed be served. This Saturday, the administrative court of Nice suspended the prohibition order which threatened the meal. It will be held on Sunday noon in a secret place, a “private restaurant” somewhere near the station. Friday evening, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi took a municipal decree banning the event for disturbing public order. Immediately, Tariq Ramadan’s lawyers filed a summary freedom. They prevailed.

Under the glazed roof of the administrative court of Nice, Me Sefen Guez Guez, counsel for Ramadan, never ceased to reassure. He narrates “very concretely” a lunch “in which people are invited to eat” : “And before or after, there are exchanges on a book. [Tariq Ramadan] comments on this book, questions and answershe anticipates. It is done in a friendly environment.” He counted 19 meetings between 2021 and 2023 and “never any difficulties”. For this Sunday lunch, 79 people are registered on the “final list”. All have already paid their bill 35 euros, “dinner, drink and dessert included”.

To counter the prohibition order, the lawyer invokes “serious damage” together “fundamental liberties” : freedom of assembly and freedom of expression: “We are in a democracy, we are in the Republic. There are principles. It is tolerated to meet with 80 people to discuss the alchemist.» Tariq Ramadan has planned to discuss this work by Paulo Coelho before embarking on a “meditative reflection”. The suspension of the decree? “This is an important victory for Tariq Ramadan in the continuity of his acquittal in Switzerlandreacted Me Sefen Guez Guez accompanied by Me Ouadie Elhamamouchi. This is proof that Christian Estrosi is not the master of the city, and that above, there is the law.

A place always kept secret

Tariq Ramadan finds his audience after a legal sequence. He has just been acquitted, for lack of material evidence, in a trial in Switzerland for rape. The plaintiff appealed. In France, the theologian is also under threat of a referral to the assizes for four cases of rape allegedly committed between 2009 and 2016. For all these reasons, the feminist collective We All 06 has planned to demonstrate, when she knows the address of the debate meal.

When the lawyer for the city of Nice comes to the bar this Saturday, he is not interested in the merits. For Me Simon Daboussy, “there is no question of criticizing the content of the demonstration that is being held”. He points “public security, safety and tranquility” : “When do you keep the location of a harmless meeting secret? Why, if not because we know that there is a disturbance of public order?, he says. The organizer Amira Zaiter, seated in the front row of the courtroom, assures that the last two literary lunches organized in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in Mougins in 2022 and in Carros in 2016, reached dessert without hitch. Amira Zaiter «envisage» to reveal the address to the authorities on Sunday. Guests will be notified “by email at 10 a.m.”. The place still remains mysterious.