Switzerland’s legal system delivered a resounding and final verdict this week in a case that has gripped the nation and reverberated across Europe. On August 28, 2025, Switzerland’s highest court—the Federal Supreme Court—upheld the conviction of Tariq Ramadan, the once-celebrated Islamic scholar and former Oxford professor, for rape and sexual coercion. The case, which stretches back nearly two decades, has seen dramatic reversals, impassioned legal arguments, and a public reckoning with issues of power, faith, and justice.
The Federal Supreme Court’s decision, announced Thursday, rejected Ramadan’s appeal, which alleged procedural flaws and what he called an “arbitrary assessment” of the evidence by the Geneva appeals court. According to France 24, the court concluded that "the appeal arguments do not demonstrate any violation of the presumption of evidence by the cantonal court," and that "nothing in the appeal brief renders untenable the conclusion drawn by the cantonal court... (establishing) serious events of a sexual nature." In short, the justices found no grounds to overturn the previous conviction.
The conviction centers on an incident from the night of October 28, 2008, when Ramadan allegedly forced a woman—identified in court documents only as "Brigitte"—to have sex and prevented her from leaving a Geneva hotel room. The court’s ruling included intimate details of the encounter, as well as social media exchanges between Ramadan and the complainant both before and after the incident. Brigitte, a Muslim convert in her forties at the time, filed her complaint a decade later, explaining to the Geneva appeals court that she felt compelled to come forward after similar accusations surfaced against Ramadan in France.
For Brigitte and her legal team, Thursday’s decision marked the culmination of a long and arduous process. In a statement to AFP, her lawyers said, "This marks the end of a long ordeal and a long legal battle for our client and her lawyers." The statement reflected both relief and a sense of closure after years of legal uncertainty.
The saga has been anything but straightforward. In 2023, a lower court in Geneva acquitted Ramadan, citing a lack of material evidence. That ruling appeared to offer the former Oxford scholar a reprieve after years of public scrutiny and professional exile. But the victory was short-lived. In September 2024, the Geneva appeals court overturned the acquittal, finding Ramadan guilty of rape and sexual coercion and sentencing him to three years in prison, with two years suspended. Alongside the prison sentence, Ramadan was ordered to pay damages and legal fees totaling more than 100,000 Swiss francs (about $118,000), according to reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters.
Ramadan, now 63, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Throughout the proceedings, he has maintained that he was the victim of a “trap.” He told the court that Brigitte had invited herself to his hotel room and that, while he let her kiss him, he quickly ended the encounter. His legal team has echoed his protestations of innocence and criticized the judicial process. Defense lawyer Yaël Hayat expressed "huge disappointment" at the Supreme Court’s decision, telling reporters, "This result is shocking and disturbing. For us, there were flaws—or pitfalls in any case—that stood out and made it very clear that Tariq Ramadan was innocent. So obviously the fight continues." Hayat and her colleague Guerric Canonica announced plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, declaring, "The final word will belong to the European Court of Human Rights."
The Federal Supreme Court, however, was unmoved by these arguments. In its published decision, the court stated that the lower cantonal court’s verdict was "admissible," and that Ramadan’s appeal did not demonstrate that the judgment was based on an arbitrary assessment of evidence. The court added, "The appeal arguments do not demonstrate any violation of the presumption of evidence by the cantonal court." The ruling thus confirmed the Geneva appeals court’s finding that Ramadan’s actions on the night in question constituted serious sexual offenses.
The case against Ramadan has unfolded against a backdrop of broader allegations. In addition to the Geneva case, he faces preliminary charges for rape in France relating to two alleged assaults more than a decade ago. He was jailed in France in February 2018 and released on bail nine months later, pending trial. A third woman filed a rape complaint against him in France in March 2023. According to France 24, Ramadan is due to stand trial in France next year over allegations that he raped three women between 2009 and 2016. These cases, too, have been marked by fierce denials from Ramadan and a series of counter-lawsuits in which he claims the allegations are fabricated.
Once a charismatic and influential figure in European Islam, Ramadan’s fall from grace has been swift and public. The son of a prominent Egyptian Islamic thinker, he was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and held visiting positions at universities in Qatar and Morocco. When the first rape allegations surfaced in France in 2017—at the height of the MeToo movement—Ramadan was forced to take a leave of absence from Oxford. The subsequent legal battles have played out in the glare of international media, with each new development prompting renewed debate over issues of sexual violence, due process, and the responsibilities of public intellectuals.
The legal journey has also highlighted the challenges faced by both accusers and the accused in high-profile sexual assault cases. For Brigitte, the Swiss complainant, the Supreme Court decision is the end of what her lawyers called a "long ordeal." For Ramadan, the fight is far from over. His attorneys are preparing an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the Swiss legal process was flawed and that his rights were violated.
The broader ramifications of the case are still unfolding. For Switzerland, the ruling is a signal that even the most prominent individuals are subject to the same standards of justice as everyone else. For France and other European countries, where additional allegations await adjudication, the outcome in Geneva may set a precedent for how similar cases are handled in the future.
In the end, the Swiss Supreme Court’s ruling brings a measure of finality to a case that has tested the limits of the legal system and the patience of all involved. As the legal battle shifts to the European stage, both sides brace for yet another chapter in a saga that has already left an indelible mark on the public consciousness.
