Switzerland convicts Islamic scholar for rape

GENEVA (AFP) — A Swiss appeals court on Tuesday found Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan guilty of raping a woman in a Geneva hotel 15 years ago, overturning an earlier lower court acquittal.

The court said it “annuls the judgement of 24 May 2023” and sentenced the 62-year-old former Oxford University professor 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.

Ramadan’s 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 repeatedly raped and subjected to “torture and barbarism.”