Tariq Ramadan sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for rape
Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years' imprisonment by the Paris criminal court, which tried him in absentia and behind closed doors for the rape of three women.
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Tariq Ramadan sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for rape
He was found guilty of rape, as well as rape of a vulnerable person. “Consenting to sexuality is not the same as consenting to any sexual act whatsoever,” said the presiding judge Corinne Goetzmann.
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She ordered that he be subject to judicial supervision for a period of eight years, prohibiting him in particular from entering into contact with the victims, as well as from distributing any information relating to this offence. It also ordered him to be permanently banned from French territory once his sentence had been served.
The Islamologist, who has already been convicted by the Swiss courts for the rape of a woman, has been on trial in Paris since March 2 for rapes allegedly committed on three other women between 2009 and 2016, which he denies.
But when the trial opened, he did not appear at the hearing. His lawyers explained that he had been hospitalised two days earlier in Geneva, according to them due to a relapse of multiple sclerosis.
A medical report ordered by the court concluded that the multiple sclerosis from which Ramadan had been suffering for several years was “stable”, with “no sign of a recent relapse”, and that he could therefore appear before the criminal court.
The judge then rejected the request to adjourn the trial and decided that the 63-year-old accused would be tried in absentia, and in a closed hearing as requested by a civil party. The judge also indicated that an arrest warrant had been issued against him.
Adapted from French by AI/ac
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