It's not an epilogue.
At most the end of volume one.
Launched four years ago, full of twists and turns, the investigations around Tariq Ramadan, accused of rape by five women, are now complete.
This case, in which the Swiss Islamologist was imprisoned for ten months in 2018, was the subject of an epic procedural battle between lawyers for Tariq Ramadan, who changed several times, and civil parties, with cross complaints. , hearings and multiple confrontations but also numerous investigations.
Since the opening of this investigation in 2017 in Paris, two versions have been opposed.
On the one hand, the public prosecutor and the complainants defend the thesis of virtual seductions which led to meetings in hotels with sexual relations accompanied by blows and non-consensual penetrations.
For his part, Tariq Ramadan denounces since the first complaint a "campaign of slander".
Initially denying any sexual relationship, he has since evoked "relationships of domination", harsh but "consensual".
He accused the instructing magistrates of being “under political control”.
The notion of “grip” at the heart of the investigation
A well-considered choice of word, as this notion of “hold” was at the heart of the case.
Where the investigators sometimes pointed to “ambivalent” exchanges between the complainants and the Islamologist, this argument was developed during a first expertise, canceled for procedural reasons in June.
A new expert report was added to the file on Monday, concerning four of the women who accused Tariq Ramadan of rape.
The "emprise" is "a set of mechanisms and processes that allow a psyche to exercise all power over another psyche, for its own benefit and without taking into account the own desire of the other".
Concretely, the three expert psychiatrists underline "the phishing by Tariq Ramadan of a person, confiding in him after innocuous exchanges, the identification of vulnerabilities, the fact that at the time of the meeting he radically changes his attitude to impose violent and brutal sexuality.
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A crucial expertise to decide whether to open a trial or not
The expertise could help judges decide, before ordering a possible trial or dropping the charges, whether or not the Islamologist can be accused of having imposed acts of sexual penetration by a form of "moral constraint". .
“It is enough to brandish the influence in all sauces to create a culprit (…).
Closing the case on grotesque expertise is tantamount to slamming the door on any defense, which is likely to call into question the credibility of the entire investigation, ”denounced Tuesday Me Philippe Ohayon and Nabila Asmane, two of his lawyers.
“The experts persist in giving conclusions without ever having heard Tariq Ramadan”, they also criticized.
The end of information notice “is a satisfaction, a relief.
The aim of the defense was to push back the deadline at the latest, but it is finally an important step, ”welcomed Me Eric Morain, lawyer for two of the plaintiffs.
This opinion notified on Tuesday opens a period allowing the parties to formulate requests for acts before the requisitions of the Paris prosecutor's office and the final decision of the investigating judges on a possible trial, possibly at the assizes.
Multiple charges
The Ramadan affair, which caused the downfall of this charismatic and disputed figure of European Islam, was triggered at the end of October 2017 by complaints from Henda Ayari, an ex-Salafist who became a secular activist, and "Christelle", who respectively denounced a rape in 2012 in Paris and in 2009 in Lyon.
Tariq Ramadan had been indicted for "rape" and "rape of a vulnerable person" in February 2018 and imprisoned for ten months.
In February 2020, this questioning had been extended to two other women whom he is suspected of having assaulted in 2015 and 2016 in Paris, identified by the police in photos and messages found in his computer.
In October 2020, finally, the Islamologist had been indicted after the accusations of Mounia Rabbouj, ex-escort girl, who had accused him of nine rapes over the period 2013-2014.
Justice
Tariq Ramadan case: The Court of Appeal confirms his conviction for revealing the name of one of the women accusing him of rape
Justice
Tariq Ramadan case: Fine required on appeal against the theologian for revealing the name of a woman accusing him of rape
Justice
tariq ramadan
Investigation
Court case
Rape
Islam