STOCKHOLM: A French culture figure at the centre of a scandal that splintered the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel Literature Prize has been charged with two counts of rape, Stockholm prosecutors said on Tuesday.

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 has denied the allegations.

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 October 5, 2011. He is also accused of raping her during the night of December 2-3 while she was asleep.

In November, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement, Sweden’s newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter published the testimonies of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by Arnault.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2018