Henda Ayari, the first woman to have accused Tariq Ramadan of sexual assault, has changed her account of the events that led up to the incident, the French daily Liberation first reported on Wednesday, May 30. Here is the story from Al Jazeera: “Tariq Ramadan’s accuser changes details of rape account,” Al Jazeera, May 30, 2018:
Henda Ayari, the first of four plaintiffs [there are now five, which does not count the four Swiss women whom he tried to seduce when they were his high school pupils] to have accused the Muslim scholar of rape, initially told judges that her encounter with Ramadan took place in March 2012 [she in fact had testified that the rape took place “near the end of March or beginning of April] at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Paris’ Place de la Republique.
Ayari’s latest testimony stated she met Ramadan on May 26, 2012, in a different part of town, namely the Holiday Inn hotel near the Gare de l’Est train station in eastern Paris.
The 41-year-old women’s rights activist said she had thoroughly reviewed all documentation, including a diary she kept which led her to believe the incident had taken place in May and not March.
Ramadan, who has consistently denied the charges, affirmed in previous accounts that he had briefly spoken to Ayari on April 6, 2012, during a Muslim community congress at the Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris.
Asked to comment on the latest revelations, Ramadan’s lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny called on French justice to react.
“We’ve changed hotels, we’ve changed the date, and soon we’ll change the perpetrator. This is not serious … Justice should open its eyes and deduce the consequence,” Marsigny said.
He added that Henda Ayari was coming out with her second book — “Never More Veiled, Never More Raped”- and no doubt seeking to profit from it.
First, it was Henda Ayari herself who came forward and corrected her own faulty memory, not Ramadan nor his lawyer Marsigny. When in October 2017 she first accused Tariq Ramadan, she was even then unsure of the exact date. She said she thought their violent encounter took place sometime at the end of March or early April; in other words, she already admitted to being somewhat hazy as to the date. Now she says that having gone through all of her diaries, notes, agendas, she realizes that their encounter took place on May 26. That’s about seven weeks later than she had first recalled. Emmanuel Marsigny claims that no one forgets when they were raped. But if no one does forget, then why did he not challenge her initial date, which she said was only “approximate” and she wasn’t even sure whether it took place in March or April?
Isn’t it entirely plausible that someone who had been raped, who had been subject to terrifying and sadistic violence by someone she had so admired, would instead of keeping fresh the memory of this horrific event, would have tried to suppress it? And after those five and a half years, is it implausible that when she tried to remember more or less when it took place, she might have been off by seven weeks? How precisely can you date, after how many years, every major event in your life? I had open-heart surgery more than ten years ago, and you might think I’d remember the date of such a life-or-death event, but not only do I not remember the month or day, I can’t remember the exact year, and must repeatedly be reminded. I have to repeatedly remind myself even of the years certain relatives died. I don’t think I’m alone.
What about Henda Ayari’s misremembering the hotel where the rape took place? She identified it at first as a Crowne Plaza at the Place de la Republique, and now she says it was a Holiday Inn near the Gare de l’Est. These two chains are quite similar in the level of service offered their clientele; today both chains are owned and run by the International Hotel Group; they are very similar in their offerings, with the Holiday Inn brand judged to be just one rung below that of the Crowne Plaza. That similarity explains Ayari’s initial misattribution. Had Henda Ayari first claimed to have been raped at the five-star Crillon or Ritz in Paris, and then changed her story, placing the attack at a budget hotel, say an Ibis or a Novotel, we would be entitled to doubt. But there is little difference, especially to a Frenchman, between the Crowne Plazas and Holiday Inns; mistaking one for the other is entirely understandable.
Ramadan’s lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny seems to find it outrageous, too, that Henda Ayari is about to come out with a book, to make “a profit.” Imagine that — a writer who, in writing a book, hopes to make a profit. What an intolerable idea! And what title do you think Emmanuel Marsigny will give his own future book?
In short, Henda Ayari’s self-correction as to time and place makes sense and does not, as M. Marsigny claims, undercut the gravamen of her charges — which charges, let us repeat, are the same made against Tariq Ramadan, in gruesome detail, by at least five other women in three countries. Having consulted all of her records, Henda Ayari is now able to precisely date both the day of the rape, and the hotel in which it took place.
Of course, there is one more piece of evidence that still needs to be introduced, and which Henda Ayari is no doubt looking forward to: the records of the clients who stayed at the Holiday Inn near the Gare de l’Est, in Paris, on that fateful day, May 26, 2012.
elee says
Looking for truth in the house of taqiyyah, better have a strong flashlight.
JW_Reader says
A change of date from one victim is not going to help Ramadan much. There are enough rape victims of this “Muslim Scholar” that a class action rape charge can be brought against him. A similar case is brewing in US. I guess, some influential muslims are probably working against any such case being brought against this ‘scholar’ in UK.
Brian hoff says
When I was going to college at nigh I enter than dark wood area from a light area than human figure ran past me the figure was dark could not see any detail at all. Than woman was rape. I told the cop I than unable to id the dark figure. The cop thank me as too many people make up. Saw the person when they saw nothing.
gravenimage says
Henda Ayrari was not raped in the dark by a figure impossible to ID.
Just more apologia for Muslim rape from the former “DefenderofIslam”.
deArme says
“All hotels are grey in the dark.”
I may be misquoting Franklin or Jefferson but I do believe
either one of them was in Paris at the time.
But I don’t remember exactly.
Maybe I should ask omniscient Zuckerberger -he knows everything.Marq
Roland says
I second the motion. Let’s ask Zuckerberg!
Rarely says
Of course defence lawyers are angry. They had probably prepared a defence showing Ramadam was nowhere near Paris in March-April 2012 and planned to surprise her at trial. Now, after all that hard work, they had to go back to step one. Very unfair of her.
He can always fall back on a perfect defence — he was raping someone else at the time.
Ray Jarman says
+1 Excellent point.
Sam says
is it possible that there are death threats involved in this case? Remote possibility as we are dealing with religion of peace of course.
Rarely says
Sure it’s possible. But these changes may even help her credibility and not hurt her at all. Like RS I can’t remember the year of my heart attack (4-5 years ago) and cannot remember which of two Toronto hotels a very important event to me took place. I suspect we can all relate to that.
Remember that she voluntarily offered the changes and did not do so under the pressure of cross examination.
Lebel says
Another important issues, she sent Ramadan dozens and dozens of messages via Facebook in 2014, more than two years after the alleged rape. Do some research and read some of these messages, they read like a spurned lover.
Rarely says
That would make the trial more interesting and very juicy. About time. It was becoming boring and redundant.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…And after those five and a half years, is it implausible that when she tried to remember more or less when it took place, she might have been off by seven weeks?…”
Of course – anyone who has been through a traumatic episode, whether assault or life threatening illness can attest to this. Sometimes you can be out by many more weeks or months than this woman’s initial estimate of the critical dates.
Hugh, you do a great service by going into such detail and depth in this and other cases. You and a great many others on this site care more about the welfare and dignity of Muslim raised women than the many apologists who defend the backwardness of traditional Islam.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
All the charges against this man are not going to be sustained. First, in rape cases in all juridictions the testimony of a victim has to be Corroborated.secondly,the retraction of evidence by this lady Will make the défense so strong so that no reasonable tribunal Will be expected to believe the prosecution and convict the accused.
JW and other anti-Islam media want convict this man through false Propaganda campaigns. with or without this man Islam will triump in the whole West and filthy mithraist christianity vanishes.
Carolyne says
What nonsense. Rape usually has no witnesses and cannot therefore be corroborated. I think you are confusing barbaric law with civilization.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Carolyne, Corroboration simply means supporting evidence, not neccessarily the testimony of another witness. It could be finding from medical examination of sexual organ’s contact between the accused and victim like in the case of Lewinsky v. Clinton. It is lacking in this case.Even under your legal system, which borrowed largely from sharia, you cannot just accused someone and he Will be convicted on your account alone.
gravenimage says
Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
All the charges against this man are not going to be sustained.
………………………
In Islam, this means four adult male Muslims who watched the rape. Other than that, the victim is out of luck and can be charged with “Zina” for having admitted having sex by reporting the rape. She can then be flogged or stoned to death.
More:
JW and other anti-Islam media want convict this man through false Propaganda campaigns. with or without this man Islam will triump in the whole West and filthy mithraist christianity vanishes.
………………………
Ibrahim itace muhammed has said before that Muslims have the right to rape Infidels–and, one presumes, also the “insufficiently Islamic”.
And he wants to completely destroy the civilized world, so that Muslims can rape, enslave, and murder to their heart’s content.
And his claim that the civilized West “borrowed largely from sharia” is just grotesque. In the civilized world, we are not amputating the limbs of petty theives, flogging those who drink a beer, forcing wives to return to wife beaters, allowing “marriage” to small children, sacralizing the oppression of women and Infidels, throwing gay people off high buildings, or stoning rape victims to death.
Civilized law has *nothing* to do with this brutality and injustice of bloody Shari’ah.
Phil Copson says
Given that hotel groups regularly cave-in to pressure from leftists and muslims to cancel conferences, what pressure is being put on them to “lose” their guest-list for the relevant dates ?
Capitalist-Dad says
The pernicious left always says we have to believe the rape victim—but should add unless the rapist is a member of one of the left’s mascot groups.
Carolyne says
Yeah. like William Jefferson Clinton.
jewdog says
If she was making the whole story up she would not have corrected herself. Her insistence on accuracy speaks to her honesty and should help her case, despite the defense’s self-serving attacks.