Swiss appeals court convicts Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan on rape charges
Al Jazeera
Geneva court overturns acquittal of Tariq Ramadan, hands down three-year sentence.
A Swiss appeals court has convicted Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of rape and sexual coercion.
The court in Geneva overturned a previous acquittal of the high-profile 62-year-old former professor on charges that he attacked a woman in a hotel in the city in 2008. The decision was dated August 28 but only made public on Tuesday.
The court sentenced Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt founder Hasan al-Banna, to three years in prison, with two of them suspended.
The scholar has strongly denied the charges against him, which were based on an accusation by an unnamed Swiss woman relating to the incident 16 years ago.
A Muslim convert, identified only as “Brigitte”, the woman had testified he subjected her to rape and other violent sex acts.
