Tariq Ramadan Indicted by French Prosecutor on Rape Charges

Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan, professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, has been indicted by a French prosecutor after being taken in custody on rape charges.

Two women filed rape charges against Ramadan at a French court. The claims against Ramadan, a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States.

Ramadan has denied the allegations and filed a complaint for slander against the author Henda Ayari, one of his accusers.

In October, Ayari, 40, who heads the women’s organization Les Libératrices, filed a complaint with prosecutors in Rouen, France, alleging rape, sexual violence, harassment and intimidation by Ramadan. She said she was assaulted by him in a Paris hotel room in 2012.

Tariq Ramadan teaches at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. The 55-year-old is also a government advisor on extremism.

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