A Paris court on Wednesday convicted Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan in absentia and sentenced him to 18 years in prison for raping three women. The verdict covers three separate incidents alleged to have occurred between 2009 and 2016. Ramadan has denied the rapes while acknowledging that he had contact with the complainants.
Presiding Judge Corinne Goetzmann said an arrest warrant has been issued for Ramadan, but the sentence cannot be enforced until he is taken into custody in France. The court also imposed a lifetime ban on Ramadan entering French territory. How French authorities might secure his presence is unclear, as Switzerland generally does not extradite its own citizens.
Ramadan did not attend the trial. His lawyers said he was hospitalized in Geneva with a multiple sclerosis flare-up; however, a court-ordered medical assessment rejected that explanation.
This conviction follows a separate 2024 Swiss case in which Ramadan was found guilty of rape and sexual assault. Switzerland’s supreme court later rejected his appeal in that matter and upheld a three-year prison term, with two years suspended.
Ramadan, a former Oxford University lecturer in contemporary Islamic studies who also held visiting roles in Qatar and Morocco, came to prominence before the allegations surfaced amid the MeToo movement. He is a grandson of Hassan al-Banna, co-founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Critics have accused him of promoting a conservative, political interpretation of Islam; Ramadan has denied any links to extremist movements.
The case has drawn widespread attention in France and internationally, and the logistics of enforcing the Paris sentence remain unresolved while Ramadan remains outside French jurisdiction.