Tariq Ramadan Gets 18 Years in Paris Rape Trial Held in Absentia

Overview

• The Paris criminal court, which delivered its verdict Wednesday, found him guilty of rapes on three women between 2009 and 2016, including one against a vulnerable person.
• Judges kept in place a March 6 arrest warrant and ordered eight years of post‑prison supervision with bans on contacting the victims and on publishing or broadcasting about the crimes, plus a permanent ban from French territory.
• The trial ran behind closed doors and in his absence after he skipped the March 2 opening, and his lawyers later left calling the process a “parody of justice.”
• A court‑ordered neurology review found no recent flare of his multiple sclerosis, which led the court to refuse a postponement despite defense claims of hospitalizations in Geneva and later in psychiatry.
• Victims described violent assaults and Henda Ayari said she felt believed after years of waiting, while coverage noted he was previously convicted in Switzerland for a 2008 rape.