Geneva court docket overturns acquittal of Tariq Ramadan, palms down three-year sentence.
A Swiss appeals court docket has convicted Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of rape and sexual coercion.
The court docket in Geneva overturned a earlier acquittal of the high-profile 62-year-old former professor on costs that he attacked a girl in a resort within the metropolis in 2008. The choice was dated August 28 however solely made public on Tuesday.
The court docket sentenced Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt founder Hasan al-Banna, to a few years in jail, with two of them suspended.
The scholar has strongly denied the fees towards him, which had been based mostly on an accusation by an unnamed Swiss girl referring to the incident 16 years in the past.
A Muslim convert, recognized solely as “Brigitte”, the girl had testified he subjected her to rape and different violent intercourse acts.
Her lawyer stated she was repeatedly raped and subjected to “torture and barbarism”.
A decrease court docket discovering final 12 months had acquitted Ramadan, citing a scarcity of proof and contradictory testimonies.
Ramadan can attraction the brand new ruling at a federal court docket.
Fall from grace
Ramadan was a number one determine in European Islam, having fun with the general public highlight within the 2000s as a professor at Oxford College and lecturing throughout Europe, the Center East and Asia.
Time Journal named him among the many 100 most influential folks on the earth in 2004.
His fall from grace started when allegations of sexual violence had been made in France in 2009.
By 2016, 4 French ladies had accused him of rape. The Swiss girl filed her criticism in 2018, saying she felt emboldened to return ahead following the opposite accusations.
Ramadan stated he had not carried out “a single act, behaviour or intercourse act that was not mentioned beforehand” with the ladies.
Because the allegations emerged, he put his 12-year professorship in up to date Islamic research on the College of Oxford on maintain.
His 2018 admission that he had intercourse exterior his a long time of marriage, wherein he had 4 kids with a French girl, tarnished his picture for some spiritual and neighborhood leaders.
Saying he suffers from a number of sclerosis and despair, Ramadan retired early.