The indictment, which Le Point was able to consult, is particularly damning. On the night of October 28 to 29, 2008, in a hotel in Geneva, Tariq Ramadan would not have contented himself with repeatedly raping the woman whom the press nicknamed “Brigitte”.

The author of Le Génie de l’islam would have ceased to slap her, pull her hair, call her a “bitch”, a “dirty bitch”, a “slut”, apostrophizing her with phrases such as that: “And Dieudonné, he has a big one?” Huh, he’s got a big one? “Words that do not really fit with the speeches full of modesty that the theologian pronounced for a quarter of a century in front of the young generations of Muslim immigration.

Tariq Ramadan disputes the facts, claiming that there was not even consensual sex with “Brigitte”. As for the four other rapes of which he is accused in France, the former professor at the University of Oxford speaks of conspiracy. In his book Duty of Truth, published on September 11, 2019, he insinuates that “Brigitte’s” primary motive is money: “Individuals would have pushed her to do so for a large retribution,” he wrote.

“Brigitte”, a Swiss woman in her fifties, converted to Islam in her youth, filed a complaint in April 2018. Tariq Ramadan was then imprisoned in France. Released in November 2018, but under judicial control, he was prohibited from leaving France.

It was not until July 2020 that he was able to speak on the case, questioned by French magistrates and by the first Geneva prosecutor Adrian Holloway. The former teacher and his accuser were confronted in September and October 2020. The following month, Tariq Ramadan obtained authorization to come to Geneva to participate in the hearing of seven witnesses.

In the city of Calvin, where he comes from, Tariq Ramadan can hardly rely on Hani, his older brother, as a character witness. The director of the Islamic Center of Geneva (CIG) justifies stoning in cases of adultery, compares unveiled women to two-euro coins passed from hand to hand and claims that by saying your prayers you cannot catch Covid -19.

In July 2022, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested the referral to the assizes of Tariq Ramadan for suspicion of rape committed in 2009 and 2016 on four women. It is up to the investigating judges to order a trial or not. But his lawyers multiplied the appeals, in particular challenging the appointment of Dr. Daniel Zagury, in charge of the expertise on the complainants. The investigating chamber will issue its decision on May 11 on the motions for nullity filed by Tariq Ramadan’s defenders.

A few years ago, this tenor of the bar had nevertheless declared: “To tolerate Islam is not to welcome it. It is even legitimate to be Islamophobic. Hatred is healthy. It divides, but it also unites around a claimed identity. »