Tariq Ramadan in 2016. – AFP
New legal proceedings against the Swiss Islamologist. Tariq Ramadan has been indicted
for rape of two other women, identified last year by the investigation, after being interrogated Thursday at the Paris court, his lawyer said.
These two women, questioned as a witness by the police in February 2019, were identified in photos found on the computer of the 57-year-old Swiss Islamologist, who disputed all of the charges. He was already under investigation for two rapes since February 2, 2018.
A “dominant-dominated” relationship
“There is a will to prosecute Tariq Ramadan at all costs and this against the obvious,” reacted his lawyer, Me Emmanuel Marsigny. “While the lies of the first accusers are now clearly established, he has just been again indicted while the first woman targeted herself said that the relationship had been “consented” and that the other woman never complained about their two meetings, “he added. “This case becomes grotesque, it is especially very disturbing by its drift and the deviation of the rules of law”, he concluded.
To investigators, the two women told in February 2019 how this “manipulator” had each dragged them into a virtual “dominant-dominated” relationship before a brutal meeting. “I asked him to be softer, but he said to me:” It is your fault, you deserve it “(…) and that we had to obey,” reported one of the two, relating a relationship of 2015.
Five women complained
“It is of a different order than physical rape, (…) there is moral rape,” said the other, about two meetings in March 2016 in Paris. “But that relationship was agreed, yes. Another offense would be required for these types of people, ”she added. The latter, 37, ended up bringing a civil action recently, becoming the 5th woman in France to file a complaint against the Islamologist. The other woman was not contacted by the judges, a source familiar with the matter.
Tariq Ramadan has been indicted since 2018 for “rape” and “rape of a vulnerable person”, for the allegations by Henda Ayari and “Christelle”, respectively in 2012 in Paris and in 2009 in Lyon. A third woman, Mounia Rabbouj, then accused him of nine rapes over the period 2013-2014. For these facts, he is not prosecuted. A fourth complaint was filed last summer by a woman nicknamed “Elvira”, but her account is not corroborated by investigations by the criminal brigade and she did not go to the summons of justice.
Released November 16, 2018, after almost 10 months of detention, Tariq Ramadan has handed over his Swiss and British passports and is prohibited from leaving France.
