Issued by CEMO Center - Paris
ad a b
ad ad ad

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

Sunday 16/September/2018 - 10:51 PM
The Reference
طباعة

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.

"