New evidence weakens Ramadan’s alibi

The organisers of a conference attended by Swiss-born academic Tariq Ramadan have contradicted his statement that he was on a plane to the event at the time one woman accuses him of raping her.

The Union of Young Muslims, which organised the September 2009 conference, produced an itinerary during a court hearing which weakened Ramadan’s defence and alibi, according to reports from Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In response to the allegations of a woman who claimed to have been raped during the afternoon of that conference, Ramadan’s first lawyers – who later withdrew from the case – produced an airline ticket indicating that Ramadan had only landed in Lyon at 6:35pm.

But during a court hearing in France, the current president of the Union of Young Muslims said Ramadan’s office had requested in a second e-mail that he arrive on an earlier flight.

“Mr Ramadan was scheduled to arrive in Lyon on October 9, 2009 at 11:15am. A colleague and I picked him up at the airport at around 11:35,” Yassine Djemal told investigators.

He added that they subsequently dropped off the Islamic theologian at the Hilton hotel where the rape allegedly took place.

If this itinerary is accurate, it would have allowed for several unaccounted hours in Ramadan’s defence’s timeline.

The Swiss scholar was imprisoned in February over rape allegations in France, wherein two women’s complaints led to a criminal investigation last October. A third rape allegation was filed in February.

In addition, Ramadan is accused of having had inappropriate relations with several students whilst teaching at a Geneva-area school. The institution has launched an investigation.

Ramadan denies all allegations against him.