Swedish court sentences man behind Nobel Literature scandal to 2 years in prison for rape

The man at the center of a sex-abuse and financial-crime scandal that has tarnished the academy that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature was convicted of rape and sentenced to two years in prison on Monday. Jean-Claude Arnault, a major cultural figure in Sweden, had faced two counts of raping a woman in 2011, AP reports. He was found guilty of one rape but was acquitted of the other because the victim said she was asleep, and judges said her account wasn’t reliable. The ruling by the judge and three jurors at Stockholm District Court was unanimous. Judge Gudrun Antemar said “the court’s conclusion is that the evidence is enough to find the defendant guilty of one of the events.” The evidence “has mainly consisted of statements made during the trial by the injured party and several witnesses,” she said. Prosecutor Christina Voigt had demanded three years in prison for Arnault, who is married to a Swedish Academy member. Arnault, 72, had denied the charges.