Held for rape, Banna’s grandson to face trial in France Tuesday… Swiss judiciary opens new investigation

Muslim scholar and
grandson of the late Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna Tariq
Ramadan, who has been apprehended and taken into custody for questioning by
French police for seven months, is facing a trial on Tuesday.
In April, as a
Swiss woman filed a criminal complaint in Geneva for rape against Ramadan who
denied the rape allegations, claiming he was being targeted by a “campaign of
slander” launched against him.
Ramadan hopes to be
released after this trial session.
Le Parisien newspaper
reporter, citing reliable sources, that the Swizz judiciary will hardly press
the rape charges against Ramadan who is being accused by several women of
sexual assault and rape.
Ramadan has been
apprehended since Feb. 2 after the first accuser, namely Henda Ayari, and
another woman, identified in the media only as Christelle.
Banna’s grandson,
56, is being held in a prison hospital in Fresnes, south of Paris as he has
Multiple sclerosis.
His confrontation
with “Christelle” was scheduled for 18 July in the office of the judges, but
had to be postponed due to the state of health of the complainant. That was
confirmed by medical expertise, claimed by the defense.
“The issue is less
that during the first confrontation in police custody (February 1st, editor’s
NOTE), where Tariq Ramadan was blind on the folder and could not adjust his
defense to the reality of the parts”, told AFP the lawyer of the complainant,
Eric Morain.
“My client remains
to be determined, especially after having been defiled and wrongly accused of
having pushed unfounded the confrontation of July”, he added.
In police custody,
the theologian had only admitted to a “game of seduction” in the correspondence
with the admirer.
He had stated to
have seen it 20-30 minutes in the lobby of the hotel on October 10, 2009, when
she claims to have been raped the day before with a rare violence and then
abandoned, in a state of shock, in the room of Ramadan.
The defense also
ensures, photos and testimonials that “Christelle” was present at the
conference that the preacher had given the night of the denounced facts.
According to the
defense, During this first confrontation, “Christelle” was described to
investigators the scar that Tariq Ramadan door to the groin.
Tariq Ramadan, who proclaimed his innocence, has acknowledged for the
first time in June, several extramarital relationships “agreed” and “reports of
fiery, of domination,” in particular with a third complainant appeared in
march. She denounces nine rapes in France, London and Brussels, from 2013 to
2014.
Ramadan has not yet been questioned, as he is still under status of
witness assisted. His counsel, Emmanuel Marsigny, has also filed the end
of July a petition of nullity against the testimonies of two former
unidentified lovers during the preliminary investigation, with the assistance
of counsel for “Christelle”.
On July 19, Ramadan managed to be confronted for the first time to Henda
Ayari, whose complaint was filed in the fall. But the statements of that former
Salafist, become an advocate secular, has been weakened by its twists and turns
on the date and place of the facts which it denounces.
The next day, the defense of Tariq Ramadan, who called for the
cancellation of the indictments, pointing out the “contradictions” of the
complainants, was denied this request, deemed “premature” by the magistrates.
He was also filed in the wake of a second request for release under
judicial control, with remission of her Swiss passport and a deposit of 300,000
euros, it also rejected the beginning of August.
The magistrates have relied primarily on the “risk” pressure on the
complainants and the postponement of the confrontation with “Christelle”, according
to their decision of which it had knowledge of the AFP.
The defence of Mr. Ramadan intends to file as early as Tuesday, after
the confrontation, a third request for release.
In Switzerland, a fourth woman has filed a complaint in Geneva,
triggering the opening of a separate procedure, “well-advanced” according to a
source close to the dossier, and as a prelude to a request for mutual
assistance between the two countries.