The Oxford Professor of Islamic Studies, Tariq Ramadan, was taken into custody on Wednesday by the French police following accusations of rape and sexual assaults by several women.
A judicial source told Reuters that an investigation was opened after two women testified that they’ve been sexually harassed and raped by Ramadan.
The Writer Henda Ayari, 40, was the first woman to file a complaint against Ramadan, back in October, accusing him of rape, harassment, sexual violence, and intimidation in a hotel room in Paris. Ayari, is a Formal Radical Islamist and now heads the women’s organisation Les Libératrices.
Ayari descried the rape in a chapter of her book ‘I Choose to be Free,’ that was published in November 2016, without naming Ramadan. In the book she explains that the sexual attack happened in a hotel room after a conference, adding that she tried to fight back but was slapped, treated violently, and insulted.
Ramadan has denied all the allegations against him and filled a complaint for slander against Henda Ayari. The professor took a leave from his post as a senior research fellow at Oxford University in November. “Contrary to reports in the French-language press, I have taken leave of absence upon mutual agreement with Oxford University, which will permit me to devote my energies to my defence while respecting students’ need for a calm academic environment,” said Ramadan in a statement.
He described on his Facebook page that the allegations against him were a “campaign of lies” by “long time enemies.”
Later a 42-years old woman, whose name has not been released, reported Ramadan to the police accusing him of rape back in 2009 in Lyon. A third woman, Yasmina, told Le Parisien in an interview that Ramadan has sexually harassed her in 2014.
Ramadan was also accused of seducing four of his former students in Geneva, while they were between the ages of 14 and 18.
