Tariq Ramadan tried for only one rape charge out of the four against him?

While the Islamologist Tariq Ramadan is targeted by four accusations of rape, the general prosecutor’s office of the Paris Court of Appeal requires a trial for a single case and the abandonment of proceedings in the three other cases.

The abandonment of certain proceedings was requested by the general public prosecutor of the Paris Court of Appeal with regard to Tariq Ramadan. While the Swiss preacher is accused of rape by four complainants, the prosecution requested from its indictment, delivered this Thursday March 7 and consulted by BFMTV, that only one case be the subject of a trial before the criminal court departmental. The charges brought concern an aggravated rape that allegedly occurred in Lyon in 2009. The three other cases relate to alleged acts of rape “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise to the detriment of Henda El Ayari, Mounia Rabbouj and Nais Lorainqui” which would have taken place until 2016.

The indictment rendered, it will be up to the Paris Court of Appeal to judge on a single case or all the cases for which Tariq Ramadan is suspected of rape must be judged before an assize court. The hearing is scheduled for March 29.

This indictment, which, if followed during the hearing, could put an end to the accusations against Tariq Ramadan in three cases, differs from that delivered by the Paris prosecutor’s office in July 2022. The magistrates then requested the dismissal of the intellectual before the assizes for the four cases. These requisitions were approved by the investigating judges who issued their indictment order in July 2023.

For the Islamologist and his lawyer, the attorney general’s indictment is good news since it “confirms what Tariq Ramadan’s defense has maintained since the start of this procedure” indicated the preacher’s counsel on BFMTV. “I will now convince, with my colleagues, the investigating chamber seized of the OMA appeal to confirm the requisitions and to pronounce a total dismissal by dismissing [the last] accusation which I consider to be totally unfounded ” added the lawyer.