Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan goes on trial in Paris accused of raping three women | France
Prominent Swiss academic and Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan will stand trial in Paris on Monday on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.
Ramadan, who advised previous British governments on Islam and society, denies all accusations in the case, which is seen as one of the biggest reflections of the #MeToo movement in France.
Ramadan, 63, was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University before taking leave in 2017, when the first rape allegations against him were made. He took early retirement from Oxford in June 2021.
Ramazan is accused of raping three women. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Henda Ayari, 41, a former Salafi Muslim who is now a feminist campaigner, went to police in 2017 to accuse Ramadan of rape, sexual violence, harassment and intimidation. She said he raped her during a conference he was speaking in a hotel room in east Paris in the spring of 2012.
Another woman, known by the pseudonym Christelle, told investigators that Ramadan raped her in a hotel room in Lyon during another conference in October 2009 and that she was subjected to a violent attack.
A third woman said that Ramazan raped her in 2016.
Ramazan, who is married and the father of four children, denied having any sexual intercourse with the first two women in the investigation launched in 2017. In 2018, he changed his account, telling investigating magistrates that he had had sexual intercourse with Ayari and Christelle, but that they had called the meeting and fully consented to the “dominant-submissive” relationship.
The third woman’s complaint was later added to the investigation.
Henda Ayari’s lawyer, Sarah Mauger-Poliak, told the Agence-France Presse that the case was “not a conspiracy or a political war” but simply a case of rape.
Christelle’s lawyers said they would ask for the hearing to be held privately, without media or public participation, a legal right in France. They said this was to protect his identity and prevent him from being harassed. They said the hearing was a “pivotal moment” after a lengthy investigation.
Ramadan’s lawyers expressed concern about his fair trial, telling AFP he was unfit to stand trial without his health being compromised because he has multiple sclerosis.
In 2024, a Swiss appeals court found Ramadan guilty of raping a woman in a Geneva hotel in 2008 and sentenced him to three years in prison; Two of these sentences were suspended. Switzerland’s highest court upheld the conviction in a ruling last year. Ramadan’s Swiss legal team announced that they would take the case to the European court of human rights.
