The Swiss Supreme Court Upholds Prison Sentence for Tariq Ramadan, Grandson of the Founder of the Islamist Organization Muslim Brotherhood, for Rape
The Swiss Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal filed by Tariq Ramadan, former professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, against a previous ruling by a Geneva court that sentenced him to three years in prison for a rape case dating back to October 2008.
“The allegations presented by the appellant do not demonstrate that the Geneva verdict was based on an arbitrary assessment of the evidence or on untenable facts,” reads the decision of the Swiss highest court, reported by RTS.
A Swiss court sentenced Ramadan in May 2024, grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hassan al-Banna, after a woman reported being beaten, insulted, and sexually abused by the former Islamic studies professor for several hours in a hotel in Geneva in October 2008.
“Since October 2017, when I filed a rape complaint, I have been fighting. I was the first to file a complaint. Eight long years of investigations, interrogations, and endless proceedings. Eight years in which my life was shattered, in which I was no longer really living, in which every day was a struggle just to stay upright. Despite the threats, intimidation, and pressure on the justice system, he lost, and the Swiss plaintiff won,” stated Henda Ayari, one of Ramadan’s victims, on the social media platform X.
“I learned that he had orchestrated his insolvency to avoid paying the damages owed to the Swiss plaintiff. He is strategic and Machiavellian, but he will not escape prison. I want to pay tribute to Mai, the brave plaintiff in Switzerland. She also fought all these years. She was dragged through the mud, defamed, humiliated, and mistreated by the judges themselves, but she never gave up,” she added.
Ramadan’s lawyers have announced that they will appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
