GENEVA: Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who has been convicted of rape by a Geneva appeals court and sentenced to prison, will contest the verdict before Switzer­land’s highest court, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

After being acquitted last year, a Geneva appeals court said it had found the 62-year-old former Oxford University professor “guilty of rape and sexual coercion” of a woman in a Geneva hotel 16 years ago. It sentenced him to three years in prison, two of them suspended, marking the first guilty verdict against Ramadan, who faces a string of rape allegations in Switzerland and France.

Lawyers say he will contest the verdict before Switzerland’s highest court

A charismatic yet controversial figure in European Islam, he has always maintained his innocence, and his lawyers immediately announced that he would take the case to Switzerland’s highest court. “It will be up to the Federal Court to rule on this case, to uphold justice and recognise this man’s innocence,” Yael Hayat and Guerric Canonica said in a statement.

Lawyers for the plaintiff in the case — a Muslim convert identified only as “Brigitte” — said they were relieved “the truth had finally triumphed”, insisting they were not worried about the new appeal. “Our client is of course relieved, considering what she has had to endure for the truth to come out,” the woman’s lawyers Veronique Fontana and Robert Assael said.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024