Nobel scandal rape charges

A FRENCH photographer at the centre of a scandal that shook the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel Literature Prize has been charged with two counts of rape, Stockholm prosecutors said yesterday.

Jean-claude Arnault, who is married to a member of the Swedish Academy and is accused of sexual assault by 18 women, has been charged with raping a woman in Stockholm on two occasions in 2011. He denies the allegations.

“The evidence in this case is solid and sufficient enough for an indictment,” prosecutor Christina Voigt told AFP, referring to indirect witness accounts that corroborate the victim’s version of events. No date has been set for the trial. According to the charge sheet, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Arnault, 71, allegedly forced the victim – who was in a state of “intense fear” – to have oral sex and intercourse in a Stockholm apartment on Oct 5 2011. He is also accused of raping her during the night of Dec 2-3 while she was asleep.

In November, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published the testimonies of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by Arnault.

Married to Katarina Frostenson, an Academy member and poet, Arnault has denied the allegations, but the Academy severed all ties to him and his cultural centre Forum, which it had subsidised for years.