The Depardieu turmoil never ends and extends beyond the Pyrenees: Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza has in turn filed a complaint in Spain against the French actor for rape for acts dating back to 1995 in Paris.
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On October 12, 1995, Ruth Baza was 23 years old and Gérard Depardieu, 46 years old: the journalist came to interview the French actor in Paris for the magazine Cinemanía and it was during this interview that she said she was raped.
Last Thursday, the author, now aged 51, filed a complaint with the Spanish police, she explained to AFP on Tuesday, confirming information from the Spanish daily La Vanguardia.
She spoke to AFP about “an intrusion without any consent, at any time” and said she felt “paralyzed” during the events, which according to her took place in the premises of the former production company Roissy Films.
Ruth Baza speaks of “sexual assault” since in Spain, this offense also includes rape according to the penal code.
But, when asked about the nature of the facts, she replied that it was indeed a rape: “the police described it as such”.
Contacted by AFP, the police and the prosecution said they were unable to confirm the filing of this complaint, the third targeting the actor for sexual violence since 2018.
“When we started the interview, we were both standing, and somehow, all of a sudden, he hugs me. He starts kissing me all over my face. He kissed me on the mouth and I couldn’t move,” Ruth Baza told AFP.
“He touched my body and he touched my crotch, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move, and he was kissing me, he was kissing me,” she repeated, saying she had been “petrified” and that she didn’t “[sentait] Nothing”.
The journalist explains that she “completely” forgot the facts until she read the investigation published by the information site Mediapart in April in which thirteen women accused the actor of sexual violence.
This article provoked, she says, “an inner trigger” and “flashes” of memory, corroborated by personal notes from the time that she says she found.
Prescribed facts
From a legal point of view, this complaint has little chance of success, the facts being a priori prescribed in France.
Ruth Baza explains, however, that she decided to file a complaint in the hope that it could “help other people” to do the same.
A French national icon in the same way as Alain Delon or Brigitte Bardot, known throughout the world, Gérard Depardieu has long seemed to benefit from a certain indulgence. And this, even after his indictment for rape, in 2020, following a complaint from an actress then aged around twenty, Charlotte Arnould, facts which he refutes.
The broadcast at the beginning of December of a report from the program “Complément d’investigation” on the television channel France 2 caused a new shock wave. We see this figure of French cinema multiplying misogynistic and insulting remarks while addressing women, not even sparing a little girl with his obscene remarks.
At the same time, a second complaint for sexual assault was filed by actress Hélène Darras, for apparently prescribed facts dating back to 2007 on a set. The actor also denies these accusations.