Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan has been denied bail by a court of appeal after his arrest for rape, claiming that he is not only a flight risk but there is a possibility he may engage in the same type of behaviour he is indicted for.
Ramadan and his legal team have been attempting to get the Muslim scholar out of custody on bail for medical reasons after he was hospitalised for multiple sclerosis-related ailments earlier this month, French broadcaster RTL reports.
The scholar’s team argued for him to be released and allowed to reside at a Swiss Islamic association building with an ankle monitor, but the judges denied the proposition saying that Ramadan was too much of a flight risk.
Several women also testified at the hearing, denouncing the “brutal sexual behaviour” of Ramadan, leading one of the judges to add that even with an ankle monitor Ramadan could be expected to continue his behaviour and possibly commit further offences.
More than 100,000 supporters of Ramadan have signed a petition to have him immediately released and over 100,000 euros have been raised on the French crowdfunding platform CotizUP.
Supporters of Ramadan claimed last year on social media that the allegations were a “Zionist plot” before he was arrested in January by French police.
His followers also made threats against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in November after they released an issue with Ramadan on the front page sporting a giant erection, along with the caption: “I am the sixth pillar of Islam.”
Ramadan has been accused of rape by two different women. The Swiss author Henda Ayari who claimed Ramadan had assaulted her in 2012 at a Union of Islamic Organisations of France conference and an anonymous woman known as “Christelle”.
Christelle, a 40-year-old disabled woman, claims that the Muslim scholar attacked her in Lyon in a hotel room in 2009.