(Paris) A Parisian examining magistrate on Thursday pronounced a dismissal in favor of the filmmaker Luc Besson, accused for three years of “rape” by the actress Sand Van Roy, whose lawyer immediately announced his intention to do so. appeal in this emblematic issue of the #metoo era.
The magistrate followed the requisitions of the Paris prosecutor’s office, which on October 8 demanded the abandonment of the proceedings.
In this highly publicized affair, Luc Besson, 62, disputes the accusations against him. He was not indicted, but only placed under the less incriminating status of witness assisted on January 25, after a long hearing.
The complainant has long contested and point by point the procedure conducted by the French justice, which she considers biased and incomplete and which “destroyed” her life.
“I regret having lodged a complaint, this country does not protect the victims of famous people,” said the Belgian-Dutch actress in an interview broadcast in mid-November on France 2.
Thursday, she announced on Twitter a “complaint for forgery” against the magistrate.
His lawyer, Me Francis Szpiner, added that he intended to appeal the dismissal order.
“We will go to the end […] the Besson affair is not over, ”he told AFP, denouncing“ this judge who has achieved the feat of never having wanted to meet the complainant nor even to obtain her explanations ”.
“This shows that the road for the cause of women is long,” continued Me Szpiner.
“Control relationship”
The case started with the rape complaint filed on May 18, 2018 by the actress against the influential French producer and director after a meeting with him in a Parisian palace.
Two months later, she had denounced other rapes and sexual assaults, committed according to her during two years of a “professional relationship” with the one who is at the origin of the creation of the Cité du cinema. in the north of Paris.
His complaints were dismissed in February 2019 by the Paris prosecutor’s office, who felt they could not “characterize the offense denounced”.
The filmmaker and the actress had been confronted once, in December 2018, in the premises of the judicial police, during the preliminary investigation.
“We were barely able to ask questions, we could not ask questions about my intimate injuries, and no difficult question was asked of Mr. Besson”, criticized Sand Van Roy to AFP.
The actress, who appears in Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets directed by Luc Besson, had then filed a complaint with the constitution of civil party and obtained the opening of a judicial investigation in October 2019 for “rapes”.
During the investigation, no confrontation was organized.
Prescribed facts
In October 2019, Mr. Besson had indicated in an interview that he “regrets having had a relationship with this young girl when indeed there is a relationship of subordination”.
“After a procedure which lasted three and a half years, during which many witnesses were questioned, which gave rise to a confrontation, the examining magistrate has just dismissed her, which finally clears Luc Besson of the charges. which he has been defending himself from the start ”, welcomed his lawyer, Mr.e Thierry Marembert.
“Luc Besson has been fighting for three years against these false allegations and for the truth. He hopes that after the flouting of his presumption of innocence in this case will be respected his right to innocence. He now intends to devote himself to his films, ”the filmmaker’s entourage told AFP.
Mr. Besson is one of the French figures caught in the wave of accusations of women claiming to have been victims of rape or sexual assault in the wake of the fall of American producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017.
After the denunciations of the actress, eight other women had testified to Mediapart of inappropriate gestures or sexual assault on the part of the director of Big Blue, Nikita and The fifth Element. The facts were largely time-barred.
“I have never raped a woman in my life. I never raised a hand on a woman. I have never threatened a woman. I have never physically or morally forced a woman to anything, ”Luc Besson assured in October 2019.