The Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan, accused of rape in France and who must appear in Geneva this Monday also for rape, asked for the change of scenery of the procedure conducted in Paris, accusing the investigating judge of having wanted to "influence" the investigations in Switzerland, learned AFP from a source close to the case.
In his request for a change of scenery filed on Friday, which AFP has seen, the preacher indicates that during the preparation of the trial in Switzerland, he became aware of letters between the Swiss and French magistrates.
International mutual assistance in criminal matters
According to these letters, it appears that in the context of international mutual assistance in criminal matters, the Swiss authorities had repeatedly asked the French justice system "for a copy of the entire file investigated by the investigating judges of the Paris judicial court" against him, in the interest of the investigation conducted in Switzerland. However, the French magistrates only "partially" executed this request, paying only part of the procedure, he says.
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For Mr. Ramadan, "by selecting the documents to be disclosed and arbitrarily transmitting those they considered to be related to the acts prosecuted in Switzerland, the investigating judges deliberately violated international conventions (...) and have exceeded its powers by depriving the Geneva Public Prosecutor's Office of the possibility of gathering incriminating and exculpatory evidence for the purpose of carrying out its investigation". "This is a real obstacle to the investigations carried out in Switzerland, if not an interference likely to deliberately influence the course of a foreign proceeding outside the legal channels," he adds.
Various accusations
The Islamologist is due to appear in Geneva from Monday for rape and sexual coercion in a case dating back nearly 15 years, accusations he disputes. The Swiss complainant, who says she lives under threat and therefore wishes to be called by the assumed name of "Brigitte", claims that the Islamologist subjected her to brutal sexual acts accompanied by beatings and insults on the evening of October 28, 2008, in a hotel room in Geneva. He denies this sexual relationship. In France, he is suspected of rape committed between 2009 and 2016 on four women, which he also denies. In July, the Paris prosecutor's office requested that he be referred to the Assizes and it is up to the investigating judges in charge of the investigations to order a trial or not.