The Swiss Supreme Court in Lausanne has confirmed the conviction of former Oxford university professor and radical Muslim thought-leader Tariq Ramadan.
On August 28, the court announced it had rejected an appeal by Ramadan against a prior conviction for rape and sexual coercion.
“The Federal Court dismissed Tariq Ramadan’s appeal against the conviction for rape and sexual coercion handed down by the Geneva Court of Justice,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
In 2023, a Geneva court found 63-year-old Ramadan guilty of raping a woman identified as “Brigitte” in court documents in 2008.
Brigitte – a convert to Islam – had testified that Ramadan had violated her in a Geneva hotel room during the night of October 28, 2008. Her lawyer told the court she was raped repeatedly and subjected to “torture and barbarism”.
The court sentenced Ramadan to three years in prison with two years suspended.
Ramadan – who has been married since 1986 and is a father of four – had maintained that Brigitte invited herself up to his room. He claimed that she had kissed him before he abruptly ended the meeting, insisting he had been the victim of a trap.
The rape victim only filed suit against Ramadan in 2018. She told the court she had felt encouraged to press charges following similar complaints of sexual misconduct against Ramadan in France.
Ramadan is reportedly suspected of allegedly raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016. In addition to the Swiss case, Ramadan will still have to face the courts in France about the rape allegations there.
Brigitte’s lawyers said she was happy with the supreme court’s decision: “The confirmation of the judgment is an enormous relief and marks the end of a long period of suffering and struggle for our client.”
Ramadan’s lawyers announced they would bring the case before the European Court of Human Rights.
The convict is a thought-leader for radical Islam in Europe. He is the grandson of Hassan al Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, one of the cornerstones of radical political Islam today.
Swiss-born Ramadan has been dubbed a “radical Islamist” by his critics. In 2009, he was appointed to the chair in Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University – a decision that sparked outrage due to Ramadan’s tie to the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist outfits.
In 2017, the university put Ramadan on leave following the rape allegations.
