Prominent Swiss academic and Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has not appeared in court during the first day of his trial in Paris accused of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.
The lead judge in the case adjourned proceedings until Wednesday and ordered a medical report on Ramadan’s health after his lawyers said he was in a Geneva hospital due to multiple sclerosis.
Ramadan, who advised previous British governments on Islam and society, denies all charges in a case that has been seen as one of the biggest fallout from the #MeToo movement in France.
Ramadan, 63, was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University before taking leave in 2017 when rape allegations were first leveled against him. He took early retirement from Oxford in June 2021.
Ramadan is accused of raping three women. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Henda Ayari, 41, a former Salafist Muslim and now a feminist activist, went to the police in 2017 to accuse Ramadan of rape, sexual violence, harassment and intimidation. She said he had raped her in a hotel room in eastern Paris in the spring of 2012 during a conference at which he was speaking.
Another woman, known by the pseudonym Christelle, told investigators that Ramadan had raped her in a Lyon hotel room in October 2009 during another conference and subjected her to a violent attack.
A third woman said Ramadan raped her in 2016.
At the beginning of the investigation in 2017, Ramadan, married with four children, denied any form of sexual encounter with the first two women. In 2018, he changed his story and told investigating judges that he did have sexual relations with Ayari and Christelle, but that they had sought out the encounters and had given their full consent to the “dominant-submissive” relationship.
The third woman’s complaint was later added to the investigation.
Sarah Mauger-Poliak, Henda Ayari’s lawyer, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the trial was “not a conspiracy or a political battle” but simply a rape case.
Christelle’s lawyers had said they would ask that the trial be held in private, without the media or public present, which is a legal right in France. They said this was to protect her identity and prevent her from being harassed. They said the trial was a “turning point” after a lengthy investigation.
Before the hearing, Ramadan’s lawyers expressed concern about the fairness of his trial, telling AFP that due to his multiple sclerosis, he was unable to appear in court without jeopardizing his health.
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 them suspended. Switzerland’s highest court upheld the conviction in a ruling last year. Ramadan’s Swiss legal team announced it would take the case to the European court of human rights.
