(Reuters) Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies, said on Monday he had engaged in “sex games” with two women in France who accuse him of rape, but said the “submissive-dominant” relationships were consensual.
It is the first time in the near one-year-long case that the Oxford University professor, who has taken a leave of absence from the British institution, admits to having had sexual relations with the plaintiffs.
“He can finally speak freely, and he’s relieved,” his lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny, told reporters after Ramadan, the grandson of an Islamist thinker who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, was heard by investigators in Paris.
Ramadan faced one of the accusers, named only as “Christelle,” during a 10-hour confrontation on September 18.
