Paris appeals court rules in favour of Tariq Ramadan, who has been held since February

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Tariq Ramadan, the prominent Swiss scholar held in France since February on charges he raped two women, on Thursday won conditional release as the allegations continued to be investigated, his lawyer said.

A Paris appeals court ruled in favour of Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, after the 56-year-old academic had made an impassioned argument for release. His bail was set at €300,000 (£267,000) and requires him to hand over his passport and report to police once a week.

“Where would I flee to?” he asked in his hearing, his first public appearance since his incarceration.

Ramadan denies charges he raped the women in 2009 and 2012. One accuser is a disabled woman identified in media reports as “Christelle” and the other is the feminist activist Henda Ayari.

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But last month Ramadan was forced to drop assertions he had no sexual contact at all with the women after an expert recovered 399 text messages between him and “Christelle”, some of which detailed violent sexual fantasies. Ramadan subsequently said the sexual contact was “consensual”.

In court, Ramadan said he had no intention of becoming a fugitive from justice, and said his multiple sclerosis meant he had difficulty walking after being locked up for 10 months.

“I will remain in France and defend my honour and my innocence,” he told the judges in what was his fourth bid to secure his freedom.

“I would like you to make your decision from your conscience, not because my name is Tariq Ramadan and I’m demonised in this country,” he said.

He portrayed his accusers as liars bending media attention in the case to their benefit, asking: “Who has instrumentalised the #MeToo movement?”

Ramadan, a married father of four whose grandfather founded Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was a professor at Oxford until he was forced to take leave when the rape allegations surfaced at the height of the #MeToo movement late last year.