Tariq Ramadan sent to trial for rape of three women

The Paris Court of Appeal decided on Thursday June 27 to refer Swiss preacher Tariq Ramadan to the departmental criminal court for rapes against three women and dismissed the case of a fourth, we learned from lawyers from This folder.

My Laure Heinich and Laura Ben Kemoun, lawyers for the fourth woman who accused Tariq Ramadan, and for whom the investigating judges had requested a trial, denounced a decision “incomprehensible”. Me Pascal Garbarini, one of Tariq Ramadan’s lawyers, assured that “the fight continues for innocence” of his client.

The case of Mounia Rabbouj dismissed

The investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal examined on March 29 the appeal filed by the defense of the Swiss Islamologist, 61, who contested his dismissal ordered in July 2023 by two investigating judges of the Paris court .

In his written submissions, Advocate General Matthieu Bourrette requested that only the aggravated rape of “Christelle”committed in Lyon in October 2009. The representative of the public prosecutor had in fact considered that the elements were sufficient to characterize such a crime.

On the other hand, he had ruled out“control” that Tariq Ramadan would have exercised on “Christelle” and her other accusers: Henda Ayari, a former Salafist turned secular activist who triggered the affair by filing a complaint in October 2017 for a rape which allegedly took place in 2012 in Paris; Mounia Rabbouj, a former escort girl who accused him of nine rapes between 2013 and 2014; a third woman for acts dating back to 2016. He therefore requested a dismissal of the charges concerning them.

But the court of appeal ultimately took a position even different from that of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the Parisian investigating judges and the attorney general at the court of appeal, by dismissing the only case of Mounia Rabbouj, according to the sources close to the case.

A “particularly incomprehensible” decision

My Laure Heinich and Laura Ben Kemoun, lawyers of “Christelle” and Mounia Rabbouj, denounced a decision “particularly incomprehensible”. “Why is one excluded and not the others? No one can understand this decision”which will not allow us to judge “the complexity and comprehensiveness of the file”lamented Mr. Heinich.

Henda Ayari’s lawyer, Me David-Olivier Kaminski welcomed a “victory for justice. Ms. Ayari will be entitled to a trial which will allow justice to say whether Tariq Ramadan is really innocent or guilty”.

Me Pascal Garbarini, one of Tariq Ramadan’s lawyers, assured for his part that “the fight continues for innocence” of his client. The lawyer, who had requested the dismissal of the case, “continues to think that there are no elements both on the material level and on that of influence” against his client. The defense, like the two lawyers for the civil parties, were considering an appeal to the Court of Cassation on Thursday afternoon.