A court in Paris has delivered an 18-year prison sentence to prominent Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan, finding him guilty of raping three women. This verdict comes two years after a separate rape conviction against him in Switzerland.
The French legal proceedings originated in 2017, a period marked by the Me Too movement. During this time, two of the three complainants publicly shared their experiences of sexual abuse and harassment.
Ramadan, a 63-year-old former professor of Islamic studies associated with Oxford’s St Antony’s College, was absent from the Paris trial proceedings. He has consistently denied all accusations leveled against him.
His legal counsel stated that Ramadan was undergoing treatment in Geneva, Switzerland, for multiple sclerosis, and characterized the trial as a “farce.”
Presiding Judge Corinne Goetzmann announced that an arrest warrant for Ramadan had been issued. However, it was noted that Switzerland does not maintain an extradition treaty with France, complicating enforcement.
In addition to the prison term, Ramadan faces a potential lifetime ban from French territory.
The court determined that the 18-year sentence was warranted due to the “extreme seriousness of the acts.”
“Consenting to sex does not imply consenting to any sexual act whatsoever,” the judge stated, emphasizing the distinction between consent and specific physical acts.
Upon exiting the courtroom, one of the complainants, Henda Ayari, spoke to reporters. She expressed that the judges had believed her account and described “nine years of suffering and struggle” since she initially filed her complaint.
Ayari recounted to French television in 2017 that the scholar had attacked her in a hotel room in 2012, using the phrase “literally pounced on me like a wild animal.”
Speaking on Wednesday, she also conveyed her thoughts for other victims. These included “victims who had the courage to file a complaint like me, but also of those who could not summon up the strength, and those who had withdrawn their complaint because of threats and reprisals.”
The second woman involved in the French case accused Ramadan of rape in a Lyon hotel in 2009. The Swiss case involved an accusation of rape in a Geneva hotel in 2008.
Tariq Ramadan himself has responded to the sentence, calling for a “new trial, a trial with both parties present.”
He informed Le Parisien newspaper, “I will not let this decision stand.” Ramadan maintained that his health issues prevented his attendance in Paris, suggesting that he would not have assembled a legal team if he had intended to evade the proceedings.
Tariq Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He has long asserted that the allegations against him are part of a deliberate smear campaign. He told Le Parisien that he viewed himself as a victim of a political effort “to remove a Muslim intellectual.”
The issuance of an arrest warrant currently places Ramadan under a legal constraint. This situation raises questions regarding the feasibility of a new trial proceeding without his voluntary presence or agreement to pre-trial detention in France.