Accused of rape, producer and filmmaker Luc Besson placed under the status of assisted witness (Archives) -
AFP
Accused of rape for nearly three years by the Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, the filmmaker and producer Luc Besson was placed on Monday under the status of witness assisted at the end of his hearing by an investigating judge.
"This decision confirms once again that the facts alleged against Luc Besson have no basis", welcomed his lawyer Thierry Marembert, confirming information from Le
Point
.
"It comes after a first classification without follow-up in February 2019 and requisitions against the opening of judicial information by a deputy prosecutor of the Paris prosecutor's office," he recalled.
No judicial source was able to confirm Monday evening to AFP the outcome of this summons of Luc Besson for a first appearance interrogation.
A rape complaint in May 2018
The status of assisted witness is legally placed between that of witness and that of indictment: there are indications that may lead one to believe in the guilt of the person but, in the eyes of the judge, they are not "serious or consistent".
The person placed under this status has access to the file and can then be indicted if the investigations bring new elements making it probable that he is guilty.
Sand Van Roy had filed a rape complaint on May 18, 2018 against the influential 60-year-old French producer and director, the day after a meeting with him at the Bristol, 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 of influence" with the producer.
These complaints had been dismissed on February 25, 2019 by the Paris prosecutor's office who considered that they had not been able to "characterize the offense denounced in all its constituent elements".
The actress then filed a complaint with the constitution of civil party which had led to the opening of a judicial investigation on October 2, 2019 for "rapes".
The Paris public prosecutor's office had told the judge to be opposed to this relaunch of the investigations.
Asked Monday evening on this development, Sand Van Roy and his lawyer, Me Francis Szpiner, did not react immediately.
Besson confronted with his accuser
Luc Besson was heard in open hearing by the police in October 2018, then confronted with his accuser in December.
Eight other women had subsequently accused the director of the
Big Blue
of inappropriate gestures, even sexual assault, in testimonies collected by Mediapart, for largely prescribed facts.
Some had written to investigators or were interviewed in support of the complainant.
“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 constrained a woman to anything ”, had swept the director in October 2019.
"I regret having had a relationship with this young girl when indeed there is a relationship of subordination, even if I did not experience it like that, but it is obvious," he added.
Luc 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 after the fall of American producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017.
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