A prominent Islamic scholar in France has been charged with taking part in a journalist’s gang rape. The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, has already faced charges of raping two other women.
French judicial sources informed foreign media that the scholar had been accused by a woman in her 50s, who had met him for his interview. Ramadan’s male assistant also took part in the act, which took place at a hotel in Lyon in May 2014.
The criminal complaint regarding this matter was filed in May 2019, and also included accusations against Ramadan of issuing ‘threats or acts of intimidation’ to prevent her from informing authorities about the alleged sexual assault.
The scholar is married with four children, and is the grandson of the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna. He was formerly a professor at the prestigious Oxford University, from where he was forced to take leave when rape allegations against him came to light in 2017 amidst the ‘Me Too’ movement.
The allegations included the rape of a disabled woman in 2009 and a feminist activist in 2012, both of which he has denied.
Last year, in February, he was arrested and held for nine months. The scholar is also under investigation in Switzerland following a rape complaint.
The woman who filed the report, described the attack as being of ‘untold violence’ and claimed that upon threatening to report Ramadan, he replied, “You don’t know how powerful I am.”