Tariq Ramadan, indicted for two rapes he challenges and threatened by several complaints, is expected this Thursday among judges, more than a year after his last interrogation on the merits of the file, according to concordant sources. The 57-year-old Swiss Islamologist was originally scheduled to be questioned on January 23 by the examining magistrates, but that day he was unwell on the ground floor of the Paris court and the hearing was canceled.
His last interrogation on the merits dates back to October 22, 2018, the day of his about-face: after nine months of detention and denials, Tariq Ramadan admitted having had sex with his first two accusers, but according to him "consented". He was released on November 16, 2018, after paying a deposit of 300,000 euros and handing over his Swiss passport.
Three potential new victims
Tariq Ramadan has been under investigation since February 2, 2018 for "rape" and "rape of a vulnerable person", for the acts denounced by two women, 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.
Since the Islamologist's last interrogation, the investigation has however been extended by the Paris public prosecutor's office to the case of three potential new victims. Among them, a woman nicknamed "Elvira" became last summer the 4th woman in France to file a complaint against this figure of European Islam, long popular and controversial. But her account is not corroborated by the verifications of the criminal brigade and she did not go to the summons of the investigators and the judges.
The other two women were identified in photos found on the Islamologist's computer and interviewed in February 2019. They have not yet been heard by the examining magistrates and one of the has finally become a civil party in recent days.
Prohibition to leave the territory
Tariq Ramadan can theoretically be indicted for these new cases, "which is unlikely before these women were heard by the examining magistrates," said a source familiar with the matter.
Tariq Ramadan, who denounces the “lies” of these accusers and “the media runaway”, is prohibited from leaving the territory since his release from prison. For the second time, justice has just denied him Tuesday the authorization to go punctually to his London home, according to sources close to the file.
On leave from the University of Oxford since the start of the case at the end of 2017, the Islamologist notably wishes to resume consultations with the doctors who diagnosed him in 2006 with multiple sclerosis.
- Sexual violence
- Investigation
- Ramadan tariq
- Society
- Rape
- Justice