GENEVA: Prosecutors in Geneva have opened a rape and sexual misconduct inve­s­tigation against Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who has been detained in France since February on separate rape charges, Swiss media reported on Sunday.

The Tribune de Geneve new­spaper quoted justice mi­n­­istry spokesman Henri Della Casa as saying that aut­horities had decided to open a formal criminal inquiry into allegations that Ramadan raped a woman in a Geneva hotel in 2008.

“I confirm the opening of an inquiry,” the paper quo­ted Della Casa as saying, a key step that indicated the authorities believed the allegations merit further investigation.

The accuser lodged her complaint in April.

“The prosecutors and Gen­eva police have worked qui­ckly and worked well,” Rom­ain Jordan, the lawyer representing Ramadan’s Swiss accuser, said in an email.

He described the decision to open a criminal inquiry as “a major advance” that “dem­­­o­nstrates the seriousness of the allegations made by our client.”

Ramadan, a Swiss citizen and Oxford University professor whose grandfather foun­ded Egypt’s Muslim Brothe­rhood movement, has not yet been interviewed by Swiss prosecutors.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2018