A Paris court has sentenced Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan in absentia to 18 years in prison for raping three women.
The former Oxford University professor was found guilty on Wednesday of all three counts, covering incidents between 2009 and 2016. Ramadan has denied the allegations but acknowledged having had contact with the women.
Presiding Judge Corinne Goetzmann said an arrest warrant has been issued; the sentence cannot be enforced until Ramadan is arrested in France. The court also imposed a lifetime ban on the scholar entering French territory after his sentence. How he will be brought to justice remains unclear, since Switzerland does not extradite its citizens.
Ramadan was convicted in a separate 2024 Swiss case of rape and sexual assault; the Swiss supreme court later rejected his appeal and upheld a three-year prison term, two years suspended.
He did not appear at the Paris trial, with his lawyers citing a multiple sclerosis flare-up that required hospitalization in Geneva. A court-ordered medical assessment, however, rejected that claim.
Before the allegations emerged during the Me Too movement, Ramadan taught contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and held visiting posts in Qatar and Morocco. He is a grandson of Hassan al-Banna, co-founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Critics say he promotes a conservative, political interpretation of Islam; Ramadan denies links to extremist movements.
Edited by: Rana Taha