Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP 8:02 p.m., March 29, 2024

The Paris Court of Appeal will rule on June 27 on the appeal of Islamologist Tariq Ramandan, against his referral to the departmental criminal court for the rape of four women. The attorney general requested that only one aggravated rape with violence be held against the Islamologist, committed in Lyon, in October 2009. 

The Paris Court of Appeal will rule on June 27 on the appeal of Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan against his referral to the departmental criminal court for the rape of four women, AFP learned Friday from sources close to the case.

The investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal examined on Friday the defense appeal of Tariq Ramadan, 61, who contests his dismissal for the rape of four women between 2009 and 2016, ordered in July 2023 by two judges instruction from the Paris court. The hearing, which began around 1 p.m., was held behind closed doors and ended just before 7 p.m., noted an AFP journalist. Several parties present described it as tense.

The defense requested on Friday “a total dismissal”

In his written submissions, of which AFP was aware, the attorney general requested that only one aggravated rape, with violence, committed in Lyon in October 2009 on a woman nicknamed "Christelle" be held against the Islamologist. .

>> READ ALSO - 

Tariq Ramadan acquitted in Switzerland of rape charges

He dismissed the "control" that Tariq Ramadan would have exercised over his four accusers - "Christelle", Henda Ayari, Mounia Rabbouj and another woman - who admired him, and therefore requested the abandonment of the prosecution for rape with constraint for the last three. This reading of the file aroused the incomprehension of the plaintiffs' lawyers. One of the counsel denounced a “hyper virulent” general counsel against the complainants at the hearing. This notion of influence had been adopted successively by the Paris prosecutor's office then by the Parisian investigating judges who signed the referral order.

The defense requested on Friday "a total dismissal of charges for Tariq Ramadan", Me Pascal Garbarini, one of Tariq Ramadan's lawyers, told AFP. The latter had first contested any sexual act with the accusers before recognizing extramarital sexual relations "of domination", rough but "consensual". In Switzerland, the preacher obtained an acquittal in May 2023 in a case of rape and sexual coercion dating back to 2008. The appeal trial is due to be held at the end of May in Geneva.