The version of the second plaintiff in the Tariq Ramadan case, Paule-Emma Aline, has also been contradicted by both the judicial investigations’ results and the Criminal Brigade’s findings. After a year and a half, the investigation reveals and confirms that Paule Emma Aline lied.
Changing versions, untraceable witnesses as well as messages that contradict her story; Paule-Emma Aline’s is also undermined by the Criminal Brigade’s investigation that lasted a year and a half and pointed out very clearly the numerous inconsistencies included in her charges list. She repeatedly had her social media account suspended on the basis of inciting racial hatred and harassment. Today, she finds herself confronted with her own lies as revealed by the investigation.
The investigations undermine the accusations
Paule-Emma Aline, who, during the first hearings, said she did not know Henda Ayari, had to admit that she knew her and that they had communicated many times. This confession has been also confirmed by the analysis of Paule-Emma Aline’s phone calls. The two plaintiffs also had communicated with the essayist Caroline Fourest via the latter’s partner Fiammetta Venner, between May and November 2017 (six months before the complaint [against Tariq Ramadan] was lodged, and two weeks after). The phone calls list counts 156 phone calls or SMS between Henda Ayari and Caroline Fourest on the one hand, and 116 between the latter and Paule-Emma Aline on the other hand. Like Henda Ayari, Paule-Emma Aline has been in contact with the revisionist essayist Alain Soral, another staunch opponent of Tariq Ramadan. During the various hearings, she backtracked on her statements and admitted to having lied several times.
In her hearings, Paule-Emma Aline said she did not know the Swiss plaintiff "Maimouna" also known as "Brigitte". The scanning of her computer files, however, revealed that the two women have actually known each other for ten years, since the first contact dates back to 2009. It was Paule-Emma Aline who announced on her social media platform about the forthcoming complaint of the Swiss plaintiff in April 2018, one day before the complaint was lodged and went public.
The versions concerning the alleged rape were also changing over time. Paule-Emma Aline told the police and the media that she was raped before the 9 October conference and that during the conference she was left in a state of shock, injury, swelling, in a semi-comatose state. She did not spare any details about being allegedly held against her will to add to the horror of the scene. However, she told the first doctor who examined her as part of her complaint that she attended the conference and was raped and assaulted "afterwards”. Today, four international and French facial recognition investigations confirm that she had been present at the Tariq Ramadan conference. Paule-Emma Aline has knowingly and repeatedly lied at each hearing session.
This conclusion has been also confirmed by the Criminal Brigade’s investigation which states that the forty-year-old woman has sent messages proving that there had never been rape. Indeed, according to the Criminal Brigade, Paule-Emma Aline sent a clear message (in the aftermath of this only meeting during which she accuses Tariq Ramadan of raping her): "I missed you as soon as I passed the door." This message could not have been written after a rape, notes the Criminal Brigade.
The SMSs, according to the Criminal Brigade, were sent "after the alleged facts", the police concluded. They are "confusing, because the plaintiff seemed delighted the night before." While analysing these messages, investigators noted "surprising and fluctuating" statements alternating between "love messages and reproach".
Finally, while Paule-Emma Aline said that she held a medical certificate about the repercussions of the alleged rape she endured. It is actually a certificate issued almost three weeks after the alleged action took place. It indicates the presence of haemorrhoids! The doctor merely reported what Paule-Emma Aline claims to have undergone but the certificate does not mention any signs of sexual or physical abuse.
Inconsistent narrative and social media harassment
Similarly, there are many inconsistencies in Paule Emma Aline's narrative. These inconsistencies have been identified by the Criminal Brigade but the investigating judges still did not take them into consideration. The narrative about the alleged rape is the most obvious example. Paule-Emma Aline claims to have been a victim of an appalling violence before and after being locked up in the hotel room. This claim has been invalidated by the facts now. Moreover, she claims to have taken a bus between 5 am and 6 am on Saturday, October 10, after fleeing the room with signs of violence and swelling all over her face, a torn dress, a crutch and a broken heel. Having no money to buy a bus ticket, she claims to have asked the driver to let her get on the bus, given her condition. On a Saturday morning, between 5am and 6am, the bus should be empty and such a scene, if true, would have been easily recalled by any bus driver. However, an investigation was made on the public transportation employees (RATP); all employees on duty that morning were found: none of them remembers her or to have had boarded a woman in distress on the bus. She further states that she complained to a police station where "the policemen mocked her". Today, Paule-Emma says that she no longer remembers the address of the police station where she went although she was in her own home town.
Finally, she claims to have converted to Islam and made contact with Tariq Ramadan in order to ask him religious questions. She has never been able to bring a single element confirming her conversion to Islam and in all the messages she sent to him, there is no question about religion. She told the judges that she was under "religious sway" and that Tariq Ramadan was imposing on her some dress codes such as the "Islamic veil". None of the messages analysed confirms her allegations. She appears without headscarf in the photo at the conference she attended on October 9.
What is certified nonetheless is that Paule Emma Aline has since been very close to the far-right movement. She attacked "Arabs" and "Muslims" in numerous social media publications and on her Tariq Ramadan case page. Paule-Emma Aline was a candidate on a list of "Debout la Republique" party during the legislative elections of 2012 and created a website that echoed the ideas of the far right party Le Front National.
An abnormal psychological profile
She admitted to having created false social media accounts on behalf of the professor, pretending to be him for several years. She also created fake accounts of women claiming to be in contact with Tariq Ramadan. She faked imaginary dialogues and virtual exchanges between accounts she herself had created. She has always been very present on Twitter under her own identity. She has repeatedly verbally harassed some protagonists of the case, including Tariq Ramadan’s family and supporters, but also Henda Ayari whom Paule-Emma Aline accused of lying, and even "spying on" her via social networks. Several supporters of the professor have also filed a complaint against Paule-Emma Aline for defamation and harassment.
Tariq Ramadan’s lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny said that he had received death threats from the forty-years-old woman who posted photos of his family on social media. She even regularly posted personal photos of the professor’s supporters accompanied by insulting and / or conspiratorial words. It is, therefore, an abnormal psychological profile -to say the least- that emerges from both her speeches and the Criminal Brigade’s investigation outcomes.
A year and a half after the beginning of this investigation, and more than ever before, Paule-Emma Aline's complaint is undermined. On February 22, 2019, Tariq Ramadan filed a complaint against the three plaintiffs for "false accusation" and "denunciation of an imaginary offence."
K.L