The trial of Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016 opened on Monday before the Paris Criminal Court – but in his absence, as the 63-year-old remains hospitalised in Switzerland.
This recent development could yet delay proceedings, with French judges set to decide whether to postpone the case after hearing submissions from all parties.
The trial had been scheduled to run until 27 March before a panel of professional judges, with Ramadan facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Ramadan, who denies the allegations, has been admitted to hospital in Geneva since Saturday, according to his lawyer Marie Burguburu. She requested a postponement, arguing that her client must be “fit to appear” before the court.
The academic, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, had reportedly been travelling frequently to Geneva in recent months to visit his 93-year-old mother.
However, the presiding judge noted that his judicial supervision required him to reside in Saint-Denis, near Paris, and not near the Swiss border.
For some of the civil parties, the timing raised eyebrows. “We understand that the idea is to avoid the debate that is due to start today,” said David-Olivier Kaminski, lawyer for one of the complainants, Henda Ayari.
Islamic Scholar Tariq Ramadan convicted of rape on appeal in Switzerland
A long-running and complex case
The trial marks the latest chapter in a case that has unfolded over several years and drawn widespread attention in France and beyond. In June 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered Ramadan to stand trial for three alleged rapes.
The charges relate to separate incidents: an alleged aggravated rape in Lyon in October 2009 involving a woman identified as “Christelle”; a second allegation in Paris in 2012 involving Ayari, a former Salafist who later became a secular activist and whose complaint in 2017 triggered the investigation; and a third alleged assault in 2016.
Initially, a fourth case involving Mounia Rabbouj had also been included. However, the Court of Appeal ultimately dismissed that charge.
The court also rejected the notion that Ramadan exercised “control” over the women in a way that deprived them entirely of free will. Instead, judges pointed to accounts that placed emphasis on alleged violence.
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Allegations of violence and a shifting defence
According to investigators, the complainants described particularly brutal encounters. Their accounts included claims of physical force, restraint, and behaviour framed by domination and submission – elements the court said were central to the case.
Ramadan initially denied any sexual relationship with the women. However, in 2018, he acknowledged that relationships had taken place, describing them as adulterous, consensual, and marked by a degree of domination – a significant shift that reshaped the proceedings.
Since then, his legal team has pursued multiple procedural challenges, seeking to reopen investigations and delay the trial, arguing that new expert evidence supports his innocence.
The case also carries an international dimension. In Switzerland, Ramadan was acquitted at first instance before being sentenced on appeal in September 2024 to three years in prison – including one year without parole – for the rape of a woman in a Geneva hotel in 2008.
He has said he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and has also requested a review of that judgment, which is currently under consideration by Swiss courts.
(with newswires)
