Rabat- Another woman has filed a suit against prominent Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan for rape charges, a week after former Salafi author Henda Ayari made a similar accusation.
The second alleged victim, a woman of over 40, claims she was raped by the Swiss scholar in a French hotel in 2009.
Her lawyer, Eric Morain, told French media on Thursday that he filed a complaint against Ramadan. He added that he received testimonies from other women who also claim to have been victims of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of the Oxford University professor.
French media outlets identified the victim as a Muslim convert suffering from disability. French newspapers Le Monde and Le Parisien say she provided medical certificates to back her claims.
On October 20, Ayari posted on Facebook accusing Ramadan of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room in 2012 during the sidelines of fa congress of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF).
“I decided to file a complaint against Tariq Ramadan for what he did to me,” she wrote in a Facebook post, adding that she remained silent for years fearing revenge from Ramadan, as he had warned her against speaking about what happened.
In her book J’ai choisi d’être libre (“I Chose to Be Free”), published a year ago, Ayari wrote that she was the victim of rape from a prominent Muslim figure to whom she gave the name of “Zoubeyr.”
“I confirm today, the famous Zoubeyr, is in fact Tariq Ramadan,” she wrote in her post.
Her accusations prompted the famous Muslim author to file a complaint “for slander and defamation.”
Ramadan’s lawyer, Yacine Bouzrou, expressed his astonishment at Ayari’s claims that she previously refrained from revealing the identity of her alleged aggressor for fear he might sue her “for defamation.”
“When we tell the truth, it’s astonishing that we fear being accused of defamation,” he said.
