Prominent scholar Tariq Ramadan sentenced to 18 years for rape

Prominent scholar Tariq Ramadan sentenced to 18 years for rape Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 03/26/2026 - 10:28 Former Oxford lecturer sentenced in absentia over sexual assault of three women Tariq Ramadan at a news conference in Paris on 30 September 2025 (Stephane De Sakutin/AFP) Off Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Swiss scholar, was sentenced in absentia on Wednesday to 18 years in prison by a French court for the rape of three women. The Paris Criminal Court said the "extreme gravity of the acts", including the rape of a vulnerable person, justified the sentence, which will also see him banned from French territory at the end of the sentence. Presiding judge Corinne Goetzmann said victims described sexual relations that were initially consensual but turned violent, with one saying she experienced "a fear of imminent death" while Ramadan was strangling her during intercourse.