The prominent Swiss academic and Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan has not appeared in court for the first day of his trial in Paris on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.
The head judge in the case adjourned proceedings until Wednesday and ordered a medical report on Ramadan’s health, after his lawyers said he was in hospital in Geneva because of his multiple sclerosis.
Ramadan, who advised previous British governments on Islam and society, denies all the charges in a case that has been seen as one of the biggest repercussions of the #MeToo movement in France.
Ramadan, 63, was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford before taking a leave of absence in 2017 when rape allegations were first made against him. He took early retirement from Oxford in June 2021.
Ramadan is accused of the rape of three women. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Henda Ayari, 41, a former Salafist Muslim who is now a feminist campaigner, 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 the east of Paris in the spring of 2012 during a conference where he was speaking.
Another woman, known by the pseudonym Christelle, told investigators 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 had raped her in 2016.
At the start of the investigation in 2017, Ramadan, who is married with four children, denied any form of sexual encounter with the first two women. In 2018, he changed his account, telling investigating judges that he did have sexual relations with Ayari and Christelle, but that they had sought the encounters and fully consented to the “dominant-submissive” relationship.
The third woman’s complaint was added to the investigation later.
Sarah Mauger-Poliak, the lawyer for Henda Ayari, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the trial was “not a conspiracy or political battle” but simply a case of rape.
Lawyers for Christelle had said they would ask for the trial to be held in private, without media or the public present, which is a legal right in France. They said this was to protect her identity and to avoid her being harassed. They said the trial was a “crucial moment” after a long investigation.
Before the hearing, Ramadan’s lawyers expressed concern over him having a fair trial, telling AFP that because of his multiple sclerosis he was not fit to appear in court without his health being put in danger.
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 they would take the case to the European court of human rights.
