An investigating judge in Paris has resumed investigations on charges of rape against Luc Besson, said Friday the lawyer Sand Van Roy, the actress who accuses the famous French director. After nine months of investigation, his initial complaints had been dismissed on 25 February by the Paris prosecutor's office, which considered that it had been unable to "characterize the offense complained of in all its constituent elements".
"Occupational influence relationship"
The actress then filed a new complaint, which resulted in Wednesday on the opening of a judicial investigation for "rapes", said Me Francis Szpiner. On 17 May, the Paris prosecutor had told the judge to be opposed to this relaunch of investigations, according to a judicial source.
Sand Van Roy, a 28-year-old actress and Belgian-Dutch model, had filed a rape complaint on May 18, 2018 against the influential French producer and director after a meeting with him at the Bristol, a Parisian palace. Two months later, she complained of further rape and sexual assault, according to her, during two years of a "professional relationship" with the producer.
Charges challenged by the directors
To the investigators, she described a relationship made of oscillating reports between humiliations and rewards and a toxic dummy of father-daughter relationship, according to his entourage. Luc Besson, who is contesting these accusations, was heard in open court by the police in October 2018, before being confronted by his accuser in December.
Eight other women later accused the director of the Big Blue of inappropriate acts, or even sexual assault, in testimony collected by Mediapart, for largely prescribed facts. Some wrote to the investigators or were interviewed in support of the complainant.
A preliminary investigation against the filmmaker is still open in Paris since February to examine the charges of a ninth woman interviewed by the news site, according to a source familiar with the case. By mid-September, this Canadian had not yet been heard by investigators, according to this source.