French filmmaker Luc Besson, accused of rape by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, one of the emblematic cases of #MeToo, will know on Tuesday whether or not the Paris Court of Appeal decides to reopen the investigations against him.
The actress filed a complaint for rape on May 18, 2018, a few hours after a meeting in a Parisian palace of which the protagonists gave two different versions.
For Sand Van Roy, the influential filmmaker had imposed digital penetration on him, a source of fainting, despite his injunctions to stop. A version according to her accredited by findings, on the day of the events, by medical-judicial emergencies.
Two months after her initial complaint, the actress filed a complaint against the filmmaker for other rapes and sexual assaults committed, according to her, between 2016 and 2018, episodes of a “relationship of professional control” under threats of “retaliation on her acting career”.
Luc Besson, for his part, mentioned an extra-marital relationship in a context of “subordination”, while the actress had appeared in some of his films. But he had recounted a consensual relationship marked by “gentleness”.
In its written submissions made in February, of which the AFP was aware, the public prosecutor’s office considered that DNA analyses, carried out on the complainant’s underwear by a Dutch laboratory, constitute a “new element likely to characterize new charges (…) justifying the reopening of the information with a view to new investigations”.
At the hearing, which was held behind closed doors on June 2, the prosecutor however “questioned the question of the definition of new charge”, leaving it to the court to decide, according to a source close to the case.
Contacted, Sand Van Roy’s lawyer, Me Antoine Gitton, did not wish to comment.
In his written request, cited by the public prosecutor’s office, the council argued that “the defendant’s DNA was formally found on the back” of the underwear worn by his client on the evening of the facts she denounced. And to regret that this underwear was “never adequately assessed during the investigation”, “a capital material fact ignored”.
At the time of the motion, Sand Van Roy’s materials had not been submitted to the opposing party.
When contacted, Luc Besson’s defense did not wish to comment.
His lawyer, Thierry Marembert, indicated in mid-May that he did not want to “make any comments” pending the decision of the investigating chamber. However, he recalled the procedural path of the accusations brought by Sand Van Roy: dismissal in February 2019, dismissal of the case in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022, then by the Court of Cassation in June 2023.
