Swedish court finds man at center of Nobel prize scandal guilty of rape

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Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault at the district court in Stockholm on Monday Sept. 24, 2018, for hearings in his trial for alleged rape and sexual assault. Arnault, a major cultural figure in Sweden and the husband of Swedish Academy member Katarina Frostenson, is on trial accused on two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. (Janerik Henriksson / TT via AP)

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court found Jean-Claude Arnault, at the center of a scandal that has rocked the body that awards the Nobel literature prize, guilty of rape and sentenced him to two years’ jail on Monday.

Arnault, 72, had been charged with two counts of rape in Stockholm. The court acquitted him of one.

The crisis forced the Swedish Academy to cancel this year’s literature prize, which would have been announced this month, and prompted some of its 18 members to quit.