Paris (AFP)
"Justice does not have to be done in the public square," said Gérard Depardieu's lawyer on Wednesday, again deploring on France Inter the revelation of the indictment for "rape" of the French film star.
AFP revealed Tuesday that the 72-year-old actor was indicted on December 16 in Paris for two "rapes" and "sexual assaults" of which a young actress accuses him since the summer of 2018, which Gérard Depardieu strongly contests according to his lawyer.
"We were in a rather exceptional situation since for two months no information had filtered, and it was a good thing because justice does not have to be done in the public square", reacted Me Hervé Témime on France Inter .
Reached Tuesday by AFP before the publication of the news, the lawyer had already "deplored that this information is made public" and reaffirmed that his client disputed the charges.
"I will absolutely not indulge in a public defense of Gérard Depardieu", said the lawyer on public radio on Wednesday: "let justice work and respect the rights of each".
"Gérard Depardieu firmly contests these facts", "has the right to be defended" and must "be considered as presumed innocent", he added.
"If there is a case where the presumption of innocence has more meaning than ever, it is this one," said the penalist, figure of the Paris bar.
The complainant, a woman in her twenties, had denounced to the gendarmerie at the end of August 2018 having been raped twice at the star's Parisian home a few days earlier.
She had obtained in the summer of 2020 that the investigation, first dismissed by the Paris prosecutor's office after nine months of investigations, be resumed by an investigating judge.
© 2021 AFP