The Bruges court announced on Wednesday that it will rule on October 12 on the admissibility of the rape complaint filed by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy against French filmmaker Luc Besson.
A procedural hearing was held on Wednesday morning behind closed doors in Bruges, during which the Frenchman’s defense requested that this complaint be declared inadmissible.
The court will make its decision on October 12, said a spokeswoman, Amélie Van Belleghem.
During the hearing, the prosecution defended “the inadmissibility of the civil party application (of Ms. Van Roy), we are on the same line”, affirmed for her part Virginie Cottyn, Belgian lawyer for Luc Besson, also joined by AFP.
Sand Van Roy, who will be 35 in October, accuses Luc Besson, 63, of having assaulted her in a Parisian palace in May 2018, when this ex-model had just collaborated with the director of the Big Blue and Fifth element. She made an appearance in his film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planetsreleased in 2017. The filmmaker denies the accusations.
In parallel with the legal action brought in France, where the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed in May the “dismissal” order issued in favor of Mr. Besson, a complaint was filed in April in Bruges on behalf of by Mme Van Roy by his Belgian lawyer Joris Van Cauter.
This Ghent lawyer told AFP to rely on the nationality of his client to seize the Belgian justice, which according to him is legitimate to carry out investigations.
“We believe that the investigation in France was not a real investigation, we did not do what must be done”, also argued Me Van Cauter last spring.
Luc Besson’s lawyers have been denouncing for months “a diversionary operation” on the part of the complainant, after the setback suffered before the French courts.
After the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal, the defense of Mme Van Roy has appealed to the Court of Cassation in France, which is expected to examine the case next year.