Tariq Ramadan, at court in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 29, 2024. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP
The verdict represents the first outcome of a long and turbulent legal saga, which began in 2017, in the wake of the #MeToo movement. On Wednesday, March 25, Swiss Islamic Scholar Tariq Ramadan was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Paris criminal court for "rape of a vulnerable person" and multiple other counts of rape. The sentence was the one requested by the prosecutor, though it is, however, not necessarily the final outcome, in case an appeal is filed.
"Consenting to sexuality does not mean consenting to any and all sexual acts," said the presiding judge, Corinne Goetzmann, highlighting "the extreme seriousness of the offenses." Ramadan's sentence notably includes eight years of social and judicial supervision, a mandatory treatment order, being stripped of civil and civic rights for 10 years and a permanent ban from entering French territory.
Ramadan, 63, was convicted in absentia, after a three-week trial that neither he nor his lawyers attended. On March 2, the controversial high-profile preacher failed to appear in court as the trial opened: His attorneys explained that he was hospitalized in Switzerland, which he had traveled to – thus violating a conditional release order that required him to remain in France – to support his sick mother. They requested that the trial be postponed, but the court dismissed their request.
