The Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday confirmed the dismissal order in favor of French director and producer Luc Besson, who has been accused since 2018 of raping Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, in an emblematic file of the #MeToo era.
The court upheld the innocence of my client. A dozen initiatives in the method of Ms. Van Roy all ended the same way. Luc Besson regrets the four lost this yearsaid his lawyer, Me Thierry Marembert.
We will appeal immediatelyreplied Me Antoine Gitton, one of the members of the actress ’legal team. It’s a disgusting news item and it’s becoming a matter of state […] I saw no justice there, a false justice of little goodness.
One case was closed without further action 2019
On May 18, 2018, Sand Van Roy filed a complaint for rape, hours after an appointment at a Paris palace, in which the protagonists provided two versions. According to the actress, an imposed digital anal penetration then fainted, despite her orders to stop. For Luc Besson, a permitted vaginal intercourse was obtained candy.
Two months later, the actress filed a complaint for other rape and sexual assault committed between 2016 and 2018, stages of a professional relationships under threat of revenge for his acting career.
The preliminary investigation was dismissed in February 2019 by the prosecutor’s office in Paris.
The actress, appearing in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planetsa Luc Besson film released in 2017, then filed a complaint with civil action and got a referral to an investigating judge in October 2019.
There was no physical evidence, according to the judge
Two years later, on December 9, another investigating magistrate issued a dismissal order in the absence of any material element supporting the declarations of the 34-year-old complainant. During the appeal hearing on April 19, the public prosecutor’s office requested confirmation of eviction.
A vision rejected by Sand Van Roy, who radically disputed with his legal team the content of the judicial information, according to his bias and incompleteness.
Luc Besson has never been confronted with material evidence that tortures him, for example the photographic report made in the medico-judicial units on the day of the facts, blows and injuries. of Sand Van Roy, denounced I Antoine Gitton.
The 63 -year -old producer, known to The big Blue, The Fifth Element where Leon (The professional in Quebec), continues to deny these allegations. He said in October 2019 that he had never physically or morally forcing a woman into anything.
In court, at least three women cited facts from kiss on the neck until attempted rapechallenged by Mr. Besson.
Other women also testified to online media Mediapart of inappropriate acts or sexual assault, often prescribed, on the part of the director.
Source: Radio-Canada
