France fines Tariq Ramadan for revealing rape accuser’s name

A Paris court on Friday fined Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan for disclosing the name of one of several women who have accused him of rape, violating a French law that protects alleged victims from “retaliation and harassment.”

Ramadan, who denies the five rape charges against him, was fined €3,000 ($3,560), with €2,000 suspended, for revealing the woman’s full name in a 2019 book as well as during a TV interview.

The woman, known in French media reports only as “Christelle,” says Ramadan raped her in a hotel room in Lyon, southeast France, in 2009.

Her allegation came shortly after another woman, feminist activist Henda Ayari, also accused him of rape. Those claims were later followed by rape accusations by two other women.

Ramadan, whose grandfather founded Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was a professor at Oxford University until he was forced to take leave when the rape allegations surfaced at the height of the “Me Too” movement in 2017.

Last month, prosecutors filed a fifth rape charge against him, involving an alleged assault against Mounia Rabbouj, a former escort.

Her testimony had forced Ramadan, a father of four, to admit to extramarital relations for the first time, but he stressed they were “consensual.”

On Friday, Ramadan and his book’s editor were also ordered to pay “Christelle” €5,000 in damages and interest.

She had argued in court that after failing to halt the book’s publication, the disclosure of her name had become “the cornerstone” of a harassment campaign against her by Ramadan’s supporters.

His lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.