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 Me Too 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 stated that a warrant had been issued for Ramadan's arrest; however, Switzerland does not have an extradition treaty with France.
Ramadan is also facing a permanent ban from entering French territory.
The court ruled that the 18-year jail term was justified by the extreme seriousness of the acts and emphasized that agreeing to engage in sexual acts does not imply consent to any and all sexual behavior.
After the verdict, Henda Ayari, one of the accusers, expressed relief that the judges believed her, reflecting on her long struggle since coming forward with her allegations.
Ramadan's sentencing echoes previous accusations, including a case from 2009 when another woman accused him of rape during a hotel encounter. Amidst these developments, Ramadan has called for a retrial, asserting his health issues prevented him from attending his court proceedings.
As the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood's founder, Ramadan believes the allegations against him are part of a larger campaign to discredit Muslim intellectuals.
