UA defamation lawsuit in Paris has been ordered against Roman Polanski following a complaint by actress Charlotte Lewis for remarks in which the filmmaker questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse of which she accuses him, learned the Agency France-Presse Wednesday, September 14 from a source familiar with the matter. An order of August 30 returns to the Paris Criminal Court, on a date not yet fixed, Roman Polanski, 89, never tried until then in France in a file relating to these accusations of sexual abuse.
In press law, referral to court is almost automatic in such a procedure and the merits of the charges are examined at the hearing. Solicited, the lawyers of Roman Polanski, Mes Hervé Temime and Delphine Meillet, did not wish to comment and “reserve their explanations for the court”. The second added that she “did not know if Mr. Polanski intended to appear” or would be represented at the hearing. The publishing director of Paris Matchwho had published the interview in question, will also be judged in this case.
In a long interview published by the weekly in December 2019, Roman Polanski declared in particular: “You see, the first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory. Charlotte Lewis is always mentioned in the list of my accusers without ever noticing these contradictions. “It’s almost time for the hearing. We are waiting for it with envy and serenity”, welcomed Wednesday Me Benjamin Chouai, lawyer for the British actress with Me Fabrice Epstein. He had filed a complaint with civil action in March 2020.
READ ALSOScandal Polanski: “The complaint is not enough to make the accusation”
Polanski points to “contradictions”
Charlotte Lewis, born in 1967, had acted in the film Pirates directed by Roman Polanski in 1986. In 2010, she claimed in Los Angeles to have been “sexually abused” by the filmmaker, in his Paris apartment in the early 1980s, when she was 16 years old.
But Roman Polanski, targeted by other accusations of rape, evokes in his interview with Paris Match of 2019 of the “contradictions” with his remarks of 2010 and an “odious lie” on the part of Charlotte Lewis, by mentioning an interview which she had granted in 1999 to the British tabloid News of the World.
READ ALSO“Loving Polanski’s cinema does not make us accomplices”
The filmmaker underlined the following sentence attributed to Charlotte Lewis in 1999: “I knew that Roman had done something bad in the United States, but I wanted to be his mistress […]. I probably wanted him more than he wanted him. The actress, however, challenged the veracity of these past remarks in 2010. “Many of the quotes attributed to me in the article by News of the World are not accurate,” she said. In February 2020, Roman Polanski received the César for best director for I accuse.