The defense on Wednesday called for the acquittal of Islamic thinker Tarek Ramadan on the last day of his trial on charges of rape, while the public prosecutor requested that he be imprisoned for three years, half of which is enforceable.

His lawyer, Yael Hayat, told the Geneva Criminal Court: "I am trying for one thing, which is to convince you that Tarek Ramadan innocent."

The lawyer for the plaintiff, who accuses the Islamic scholar of raping her in Geneva in 2008, denounced the "brutal and torture" act as part of his efforts to persuade judges to convict Ramadan.

The verdict will be handed down on May 24.

The 60-year-old Ramadan, who is controversial in Europe, denies having had a sexual relationship with the plaintiff and says he is the victim of an "ambush".

The Swiss prosecutor, who says she lives under threat and uses the pseudonym "Brigitte", was about 15 years old when the supposed events occurred about <> years ago.

Brigitte, a convert to Islam, asserts that Ramadan subjected her to brutal sexual acts that were accompanied by beatings and insults on the evening of October 28, 2008, in a Geneva hotel room.

She filed a complaint in 2018, the first time Ramadan has been tried for rape but could be tried in similar cases in Paris.

During his recent speech to the court in Geneva, Ramadan asked the judges not to judge him for his "real or supposed ideology" and "not to be influenced by the media and political noise emanating from France", telling them "forget that I am Tarek Ramadan".

"Ramadanphobia"

Brigitte said on Tuesday she had filed a complaint 10 years after she was encouraged by complaints filed in France. During her pleading, which the prosecutor did not attend, Ramadan's lawyer accused these women of forging ties to bring down Tarek Ramadan, speaking of an actual "Ramadanophobia".

She denounced the deviations of the #مي Me Too movement, warning judges of the risk of a "mistake of law".

The other defense lawyer, Gerick Kanonika, enumerated the "incredible" points in the plaintiff's account that should "lead to the exclusion of any conviction", and said at the end of his argument that "the application of the law means the acquittal of Tarek Ramadan."

The defence and prosecution agree that the Ramadan and the plaintiff spent the night together in a hotel room that she left early in the morning.

Ramadan asserted that he did not tell the plaintiff that he was in Geneva on the night of the supposed facts, stressing that she was the one who suggested having a cup of coffee and came to his hotel room uninvited. He admitted that he accepted it before putting an end to the relationship.

However, the indictment indicates that he committed three rapes the same night as well as "sexual coercion" during which she almost suffocated.

"She told the truth," said the plaintiff's lead lawyer, Robert Asayel, adding: "Can a similar story be made up with all these details?"

Ramadan holds a doctorate from the University of Geneva, where he wrote a thesis on the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, his maternal grandfather.

He was Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom until November 2017 and a guest professor at several universities in Morocco, Malaysia, Japan and Qatar.

Ramadan is popular among conservative Islam, but it is particularly controversial among secularists who see him as a supporter of political Islam.

Monday he confirmed he suffers from multiple sclerosis and depression.

In France, he is suspected of raping four women between 2009 and 2016, a case that caused his downfall in 4.