A Swiss appeal court has found the Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan guilty of raping a woman in a Geneva hotel 15 years ago, overturning a lower court acquittal.
The court said it “annuls the judgment of 24 May 2023” and sentenced the former Oxford University professor, 62, to three years in prison, two of them suspended.
The verdict was slightly more lenient than the three years in prison – half suspended – requested by the prosecutor in the appeals case in May.
The ruling, dated 28 August but not made public until after it was reported by broadcaster RTS early on Tuesday, is likely to be subject to an appeal at Switzerland’s highest court.
Ramadan, a charismatic yet controversial figure in European Islam, has always maintained his innocence. His accuser, a Muslim convert identified only as “Brigitte”, had testified before the court that he subjected her to rape and other violent sex acts in a Geneva hotel room during the night of 28 October 2008.
The lawyer representing Brigitte said she was raped repeatedly and subjected to “torture and barbarism”.
Ramadan said Brigitte invited herself up to his room. He let her kiss him, he said, before quickly ending the encounter. He said he was the victim of a “trap”.
Brigitte was in her 40s at the time of the alleged assault. She filed a complaint 10 years later, telling the court she felt emboldened to come forward after similar complaints were filed against Ramadan in France.
The appeals verdict overturns a lower court finding last year acquitting Ramadan of rape and sexual coercion, citing a lack of evidence, contradictory testimonies and “love messages” sent by the plaintiff after the alleged assault.
But during the appeal, Brigitte’s lawyers alleged that Ramadan had exercised significant control over the woman, suggesting she had suffered something akin to Stockholm syndrome.
The three appeals court judges pointed to “witness testimony, certificates, medical notes and private expert opinions consistent with the facts presented by the plaintiff”.
“Elements collected during the investigation have thus convinced the chamber of the guilt of the accused,” the court said in a statement.
Ramadan’s lawyers said later he would contest the verdict before Switzerland’s highest court.
“It will be up to the federal court to rule on this case, to uphold justice and recognise this man’s innocence,” Yael Hayat and Guerric Canonica said in a statement to AFP.
Ramadan was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and held visiting roles at universities in Qatar and Morocco. He took leave of absence in 2017 when rape allegations surfaced in France at the height of the “Me Too” movement. In France, he is suspected of raping three women between 2009 and 2016.
His large defence team is fighting a Paris appeals court decision in June that the cases can go to trial.
