“The Federal Court dismissed Tariq Ramadan’s appeal against the conviction for rape and sexual coercion handed down by the Geneva Court of Justice,” the high court said in a statement.
A Geneva appeals court last year found the former Oxford University professor guilty of the rape of a woman in a Geneva hotel 17 years ago, sentencing him to three years in prison, two of which were suspended, AFP reports.
The ruling marked the first guilty verdict against Ramadan, who faces a string of rape allegations across Europe including Switzerland and France.
His supporters claim the allegations are part of an elaborate and coordinated “Zionist plot.”
The married father of four was a professor at Oxford University until he was forced to take leave when rape allegations surfaced at the height of the “Me Too” movement in late 2017.
He was banned from entering the United States by the George W. Bush administration in 2004 after it was alleged he donated to the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP/ Palestinian Relief Organisation) from 1998 to 2002.
The U.S. government considered the ASP a group that funded terrorism by giving some of their donations to the anti-Israel terrorist organisation Hamas which is proscribed in the U.S.
Ramadan’s U.S. travel ban was later lifted by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2010 during the Obama administration.
Islam has always maintained his innocence of any and all allegations of sexual assault.
File/Swiss Muslim intellectual and professor Tariq Ramadan (L) and Saudi Cheikh Ziad Elhadj (R) at the opening of the 31st annual meeting of the Muslims of France organised by the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF) near Paris, on April 18, 2014. (JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP via Getty)
In the most recent trial, the Swiss supreme court said the appeals court verdict was “admissible”, rejecting Ramadan’s assertion that the lower court’s “assessment of the evidence was arbitrary”.
“In addition, the appellant raised procedural objections … which were also dismissed,” it said, per AFP.
Lawyers for the woman who brought the complaint — a Muslim convert identified only as “Brigitte” — hailed the decision.
“This marks the end of a long ordeal and a long legal battle for our client and her lawyers,” they said in an email statement sent to AFP.
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