Lawyers for university professor Tariq Ramadan said that the French judiciary charged a new rape charge against the Swiss thinker, making it the fifth woman to be tried in court for sexual assault.
The authorities charged Ramadan with the rape of “Monia Rabouj” in 2013 and 2014. The public prosecutor in Paris had requested the indictment in the spring of 2018, but judges suspended decision-making on the case of Rouge, who previously worked as a female escort.
Her testimony led Tariq Ramadan, who was in custody, to confess for the first time to practicing extramarital affairs, which he described as “consensual.”
Tariq Ramadan’s lawyers said upon leaving the interrogation session in the Paris court that “there has been no new element” in the investigation two years ago, and they added that what happened was a “formal indictment for organizing the confrontation in the future.”
They added that the matter “is not the words of Tariq Ramadan in exchange for the statements of this woman, but rather this woman in exchange for her dangerous lies.”
As for the attorney for the plaintiff, he said that what happened was “definitely satisfactory” and represented a “major turning point.” He added, “The investigations have shown to what degree my client’s statements are trustworthy and consistent.”
And he added, “The Criminal Procedure Law does not recognize the formal indictment: only serious and identical indications that the judges registered today.”
Monia Rabouj’s testimony played an important role in the charges against Ramadan, and she was a main party in the pimping case known as “Cartoon”, which included the former director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The 47-year-old filed a lawsuit against the Islamic thinker in March 2018 accusing him of raping her nine times in France, London and Brussels, between 2013 and 2014.
Tariq Ramadan, 58, has been arrested since he was charged on February 2, 2018.
Ramadan was admitted on June 5, after Rbouge’s testimony, with relationships with her and other mistresses who gave testimonies. Ramadan provided more than 300 videos and 1,000 photos to convince the judges that it was a consensual relationship, and the judges had not accused him at the time.
He was charged a third, and then a fourth, on suspicion that he had sexually assaulted two other women in 2015 and 2016.
Judicial oversight was recently loosened, so that he has to come twice a month to the police headquarters. A parallel rape case was opened against him in Geneva in 2018.
