2023-06-21 16:31:00
Targeted by several accusations of rape by an actress, Luc Besson saw the decision of the Court of Cassation on Wednesday intervene in his favor.
by MI with AFP The Court of Cassation on Wednesday definitively dismissed the accusations of rape by actress Sand Van Roy against Luc Besson by rejecting the appeal lodged by the latter against the dismissal for the benefit of the filmmaker. © Patrick Seeger / dpa / Patrick Seeger/dpa
Final point in France in one of the most emblematic cases of #MeToo. The famous French filmmaker Luc Besson, targeted by several suspicions of sexual assault, saw the Court of Cassation definitively dismiss on Wednesday June 21 the accusations of rape formulated in 2018 by actress Sand Van Roy. In its decision, of which AFP was aware, the highest judicial court pronounced the non-admissibility of the appeal lodged by the complainant, for lack of legal “means”. This decision “therefore puts a definitive end to this procedure initiated in 2018, during which Luc Besson was systematically exonerated”, welcomed Me Thierry Marembert, lawyer for the filmmaker who had received the support of Me Patrice Spinosi in cassation. “I welcome this exemplary procedure, which has allowed the manifestation of the truth which is that Luc Besson is innocent,” he added. For his part, Sand Van Roy must seize European justice.
The plaintiff, Sand Van Roy, immediately reacted on Twitter: “Once again, […] French justice refuses to look into evidence in the file. “I am continuing the proceedings in progress and I will seize the European Court of Human Rights,” she added. The 35-year-old Belgian-Dutch actress filed a complaint for rape on May 18, 2018, a few hours after an appointment in a Parisian palace, the protagonists of which gave two different versions. For Sand Van Roy, the influential filmmaker had imposed on him digital penetration, a source of fainting, despite his injunctions to stop. A version according to her accredited by findings, the day of the facts, by the medico-judicial emergencies.
READ ALSODirector Luc Besson at its worst? 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 “professional relationship” under threats of “retaliation on her acting career. Luc Besson for his part regretted an extramarital relationship in a context of “subordination”, while the actress had shot in some of her films. But he indicated twice that he had “no recollection” of some of the facts denounced and recounted a consented report imbued with “gentleness”.
“Unfair”
This decision is in line with the constant positioning of justice in this case: these charges had been dismissed in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022. The magistrates of the Court of Appeal had swept away the testimonies of three women obtained during the investigation and disputed by Mr. Besson, who evoked “kissing on the neck” up to an “attempted rape” under possible threat of professional retaliation . Other women had also testified to Mediapart about inappropriate gestures or sexual assaults, often prescribed, on the part of the director. In its appeal, the actress’s defense considered that the judgment was tainted with procedural irregularities, would have “distorted” certain elements of the file, and would also and above all have endorsed an “unfair” procedure from its origin.
During a hearing on May 24, the public rapporteur and the general counsel had proposed the non-admissibility of the appeal, considering that the defense called into question the “sovereign assessment” of the court of appeal, that its arguments were not were not serious and that the Court of Cassation had no right to rule on the need for an additional investigation.
READ ALSOEXCLUSIVE. Luc Besson confronted with his accuserThe 64-year-old director and producer, known for The big Blue, the fifth Element, Léon or Lucywas one of the main French figures caught in the wave of accusations of women who claim to have been victims of rape or sexual assault in the wake of the fall of American producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017.
In addition to the appeal before the ECHR to come, Sand Van Roy has opened another front by filing a complaint for rape in Belgium against Luc Besson. The Belgian Constitutional Court should rule at the end of 2023 on the admissibility of this complaint.
According to the actress’s lawyer, Me Antoine Gitton, Belgian justice said in an October decision “that there are enough incriminating evidence to justify a substantive debate” before a court, and “justice French did not seek the truth effectively at all”. His client “continues the fight very calmly, especially in Belgium”, according to him.
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