(Paris) The actor Gérard Depardieu challenges Thursday before the Paris Court of Appeal his indictment at the end of 2020 for “rape” and “sexual assault” of which he is suspected on the actress Charlotte Arnould in August 2018, indicated to the AFP a judicial source, confirming information from BFM TV.
Posted at 9:47 a.m.
The 73-year-old monument of French cinema seized the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal on this request for the nullity of his indictment concerning facts which he “totally disputes”.
The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the decision should be reserved.
His lawyer, Mr.and Hervé Témime, declined to comment.
The complainant had denounced to the Lambesc gendarmerie at the end of August 2018 that she had been raped a few days earlier twice at the star’s Parisian home, a mansion in the VIand borough.
According to a source close to the case, the actor is a friend of the victim’s family.
The legal proceedings opened in Aix-en-Provence against the French actor, also a Russian citizen since 2013, had been transferred to Paris.
A confrontation between the actor and the young actress had notably taken place in the premises of the Parisian judicial police, indicated a source close to the file to AFP.
On June 4, 2019, the public prosecutor’s office had however dismissed its nine months of preliminary investigation, explaining that “the numerous investigations carried out” had “not made it possible to characterize the offenses denounced in all their constituent elements”.
The complainant then obtained the resumption of the investigation in mid-August 2020 via a complaint with civil action, an appeal which allows the almost automatic appointment of a judge to relaunch the investigations.
A Parisian investigating judge indicted Gérard Depardieu on December 16, 2020 for “rape” and “sexual assault”, leaving him free without judicial control.
The complainant, Charlotte Arnould, spoke in mid-December on Twitter to reveal her identity.
“He works while I spend my time surviving […]. This life has escaped me for three years and I want to live without denying myself. This speech risks being a huge shock in my life, I gain absolutely nothing from it except the hope of recovering my integrity, ”she wrote.
His lawyer, Mr.and Élodie Tuaillon-Hibon could not be reached on Wednesday.
Since his indictment, revealed by AFP, Mr. Depardieu has been heard on the merits by the investigating judge, according to sources familiar with the matter.