UPDATE 1-Swedish court adds second rape conviction for man in Nobel scandal

A Swedish appeals court on Monday found Jean-Claude Arnault, the man at the centre of a sex scandal that forced the postponment of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, guilty of an additional rape and increased his prison sentence.

A lower court in October had found Arnoult, who is married to Swedish Academy member Katarina Frostenson, guilty of one rape but acquitted him of another.

The appeals court found him guilty of both rapes in an unanimous decision and increased his prison sentence by six months to 2-1/2 years in prison. Arnault had denied all charges.

"The Court of Appeals judges that the plaintiff's and the witnesses' testimonies are reliable and that the evidence is sufficient for a guilty verdict," the court said in a statement.

The accusations against him sparked a feud among members of the academy, which picks winners for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and evolved into its biggest crisis since it was founded by King Gustav III more than 200 years ago.

The Nobel Foundation, which controls the prize money donated by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamate, has warned it could drop the Swedish Academy from awarding the prestigious prize if it does not make further changes in response to the scandal. (Reporting by Johan Ahlander; Editing by Simon Johnson and Angus MacSwan)

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