A court in Paris has sentenced prominent Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan to 18 years in jail for raping three women, two years after he was given a jail term for a separate rape offence in Switzerland. The French rape case unfolded in 2017, when two of the three women came forward during the #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse and harassment.
Ramadan, a 63-year-old former professor of Islamic studies at St Antony's College in Oxford, did not attend the trial in Paris, although he has always denied the charges. His lawyers said he was being treated in the Swiss city of Geneva for multiple sclerosis and condemned the trial as a farce. Judge Corinne Goetzmann told the court that a warrant had been issued for Ramadan's arrest; however, Switzerland does not have an extradition treaty with its neighbour. Ramadan is also facing a permanent ban from French territory.
The court ruled that the 18-year jail term was justified by the 'extreme seriousness of the acts'. 'Consenting to sex does not imply consenting to any sexual act whatsoever,' the judge said. Leaving court, one of the three women involved in the case, Henda Ayari, told reporters that the judges had believed her, and she spoke of 'nine years of suffering and struggle' since she had first come forward to make a complaint.
Ayari accused Ramadan of raping her in 2012, saying he 'literally pounced on me like a wild animal' in a hotel room. The second woman to come forward accused him of raping her in a hotel in Lyon in 2009, and the Swiss case involved another woman who claimed she was raped in a Geneva hotel in 2008.
Ramadan has called for a 'new trial, a trial with both parties present', insisting on his right to defend himself. He claims the allegations are part of a politically motivated campaign to silence him as a Muslim intellectual. The difficulty remains, as any future trial would require him to agree to pre-trial detention in France due to the ongoing arrest warrant.
Ramadan, a 63-year-old former professor of Islamic studies at St Antony's College in Oxford, did not attend the trial in Paris, although he has always denied the charges. His lawyers said he was being treated in the Swiss city of Geneva for multiple sclerosis and condemned the trial as a farce. Judge Corinne Goetzmann told the court that a warrant had been issued for Ramadan's arrest; however, Switzerland does not have an extradition treaty with its neighbour. Ramadan is also facing a permanent ban from French territory.
The court ruled that the 18-year jail term was justified by the 'extreme seriousness of the acts'. 'Consenting to sex does not imply consenting to any sexual act whatsoever,' the judge said. Leaving court, one of the three women involved in the case, Henda Ayari, told reporters that the judges had believed her, and she spoke of 'nine years of suffering and struggle' since she had first come forward to make a complaint.
Ayari accused Ramadan of raping her in 2012, saying he 'literally pounced on me like a wild animal' in a hotel room. The second woman to come forward accused him of raping her in a hotel in Lyon in 2009, and the Swiss case involved another woman who claimed she was raped in a Geneva hotel in 2008.
Ramadan has called for a 'new trial, a trial with both parties present', insisting on his right to defend himself. He claims the allegations are part of a politically motivated campaign to silence him as a Muslim intellectual. The difficulty remains, as any future trial would require him to agree to pre-trial detention in France due to the ongoing arrest warrant.
