Following the third plaintiff’s complaint, the exchanges between the 46-year-old woman and Tariq Ramadan, which were provided by the latter, as well as the plaintiff’s numerous lies and contradictions, the court decision of not indicting the Professor, made it possible to determine that there had never been rape. A year and a half later, where do things stand?
Tariq Ramadan was placed under the status of "assisted witness" in the complaint lodged by Mounia Rabbouj on March 25, 2018, five months after Henda Ayari lodged her complaint and while Tariq Ramadan was in detention. Rabbouj's complaint was first announced by the Israelo-French paparazzi and activist Jean-Claude Elfassi via social networks, even before the complaint was made public officially. This late complaint took many by surprise since the third plaintiff had willingly met the Professor several times over a period of thirteen months and in different places. Their exchanges confirm not only that there has never been rape, but also how the Professor was trapped.
The former escort girl has had many legal troubles. She was involved in the "DSK case" and wrote, following the trial of the latter, that she "was waiting for her paycheck", which confirms that it was the lure of money that motivated her. In 2014, her own sister, Soumia Rabbouj, alerted Tariq Ramadan about Mounia's intention to set him up by taking compromising photos and sell her story to a tabloid such as the magazine Closer. In the "Ramadan case", she admitted - in writing- that she had been promised a large sum of money to testify against him.
She made several flip-flops and ended up accusing the paparazzi Jean-Claude Elfassi and the lawyer he introduced to her, Francis Szpiner, of having manipulated her by pushing her to file a rape complaint against Tariq Ramadan. "I wanted to denounce facts; he wanted to destroy a man. It was not my approach," she declared, particularly in the GQ newspaper’s columns. "Since my first hearing before the judge, I felt uncomfortable, it was not my words," she added. On November 6, 2018 she tweeted: "Indeed, I confirm they want his death, isn’t it, Mr. Szpiner?! These are your own words besides, keep him as long as possible in prison to destroy him as much as possible".
A similar narrative also emerged from her communications’ wiretaps, held between August and September 2018. She could be heard talking about her wish to withdraw her complaint, the manipulation she was enduring by some individuals and other plaintiffs, as well as the cash advance she received to file a complaint.
She clearly repeated that she never wanted to file a complaint for rape. This is also what she reveals to one of the Professor’s supporters, in November 2018: "These bastards must pay for their lies and conspiracy," she wrote. She expressed her concern several times on social networks about the pressures she was coming under.
Money, collusion and manipulation
Since the beginning of the investigation, Mounia Rabbouj's brother, Mohammed Rabbouj, testified that his sister was lying and that she had confessed to him that she had been motivated by money: she had been promised a six-figure sum of money, she told him in a text message which he forwarded to his lawyer. In a telephone conversation, as revealed by the phone tapping, she speaks of a sum of 500 euros, which her lawyer, Francis Szpiner, would have given her in advance. The latter explained to her that the money came from an unknown donor.
In an exchange with her lawyer which she posted online, Francis Szpiner explains to his client that "the tracing of money was impossible". Mounia Rabbouj's aggressive reaction suggests that she never received the promised large sum of money.
When she terminated her contract with her lawyer Francis Szpiner, she sent him a text message that she made public: "I would like to tell you that I have all the exchanges proving and specifying that my expenses were taken care of as well as yours.. I will immediately hand over all the exchanges to the court (...) I guarantee you that this would have a huge impact especially the exchanges that I had with Mr Leclerc as well as the exchanges between Ayari and Elfassi, ah yes because your friend Elfassi sent them to me". In addition, according to a source familiar with the case, Jean-Claude Elfassi was present at several meetings between Mounia Rabbouj and her lawyer and went so far as to take pictures of exhibits which he then posted on his blog. This is particularly the case of Mounia Rabbouj’s black dress which was supposed to have traces of Professor Tariq Ramadan’s DNA. The expert reports did not confirm these allegations.
The 46-year-old mother of two, who would live between drugs, prostitution and a great precariousness, had ambitions therefore to gain money by lodging that complaint.
A source close to the file confirmed Mounia Rabbouj’s public comments: she was manipulated by the paparazzi Elfassi, who is already facing several complaints in the so-called JeremStars affair. Connected with several protagonists of the case, he introduced Rabbouj to the lawyer Francis Szpiner. He also put her in touch with the press even before the complaint was officially filed at the prosecutors' office. He also asked Mounia Rabbouj, as she posted it on Twitter, to modify the text messages in order to make the complaint more credible.
Rabbouj, former escort girl, also revealed via social networks that her former lawyer, Francis Szpiner, gave her a book on post-traumatic syndrome linked to rape, strongly advising her to read it: "Victims and perpetrators of sexual violence". This book is co-written by one of the 'experts' who had to carry out the psychiatric assessment she had to go through some time later as part of the investigation!
Isn’t it a curious coincidence that the book’s author chosen by the lawyer, and supposed to convince his client that she had to file a complaint, is the same expert appointed by the judges in order to confirm that the plaintiff’s accusations were credible!
She denounced the manipulation on her Twitter account. Francis Szpiner has since justified this choice in GQ Magazine: "Mounia Rabbouj spoke of violence and I explained to her that it was a rape. That's why she filed the complaint. She was offered the book of the psychiatrist Roland Coutanceau covering cases of subjection so that she could understand the situation she was in. Szpiner thus confirmed that he had indeed handed over the book of the expert who later supervised the psychiatric investigation.
Phone tapping that speaks volumes
In Mounia Rabbouj’s wiretaps, she clearly says she will withdraw her complaint. She also talks about a small sum of money she would have received and mentions her fear of some protagonists who act in the shadow against Professor Tariq Ramadan.
Mounia Rabbouj wrote in particular to her interlocutor that she wanted to "leave this affair", and on September 8, 2018, she denounced: "Initially, I did not go for a rape complaint, but he turned it into a rape case", speaking of her former lawyer, Francis Szpiner, who still defends Hend Ayari.
Since then, her complaint has never been withdrawn despite her numerous statements denouncing the manipulation she has suffered from. Mounia Rabbouj was verbally attacked by Henda Ayari, who called her "a liar and a prostitute" on social networks to which Mounia Rabbouj replied in a tweet dated on October 9, 2018: "I agree on this point, the file is a big shit with all the lawyers’ shenanigans and the disturbed one especially... when I see that she writes to the judge every week to complain of not doing well" and "And yes I repeat it is not me who does not knows where and when they took off my pants! It is not me who tells endless versions! It's not me who organizes collects to pay for breasts cosmetic surgery and so on! The three plaintiffs have never stopped insulting each other and changing versions over and over again.
This third complaint, which was supposed to deal a fatal blow to Professor Tariq Ramadan, had actually brought to light that the plaintiffs did not act alone or in an isolated space. Indeed, this complaint, which could not be accepted by the investigating judges as the charges were implausible, reveals how that this 46-year-old escort girl lied and was pushed by others to do so. Other actors played a role in this case and are still not heard by the judges in charge of the investigation.
The elements in the possession of justice prove that there was no rape, pressure or subjection. It is the lawyers (Szpiner and Leclerc) who, in light of the exchanges made public by Mounia Rabbouj herself, advise Mounia Rabbouj to insist on the ‘subjection’ factor in order to appear more credible.
A screenshot of an e-mail that Mounia Rabbouj posted online of a conversation between her and her lawyer Leclerc dated from March 7, 2018 shows him saying explicitly to Mounia how she should answer: "Explain that Mrs Ayari started the movement and that today, years after your meeting, you have finally found the courage to face this painful past. But to say that you are still afraid of him, of your memories with him, of his grip which it was very difficult to free yourself from. You can also say that it is essential that you be recognized as a victim to be able to turn the page and move forward in your life projects. That his pre-trial detention counted in your decision to file a complaint."
Mounia Rabouj confessed acting for financial reasons and being asked to file a complaint in return for substantial financial compensation. This sheds light on the other two complaints as there is evidence that these women do not act alone. How can it be explained that, to date, the judges have not conducted any in-depth investigation about the plaintiffs and their relatives?