2024-03-14 08:01:57
The comedian, targeted by accusations of sexual assault and rape by several women, was due to perform on March 28 at the Sébastopol theater in Lille.
After Nancy, Strasbourg and Briec, it is the turn of the city of Lille to cancel the show of comedian Seb Mellia, accused by several women of sexual assault and rape.
Originally planned at the Sébastopol theater on March 28, this show called “Seb Mellia never loses” was canceled because “the reception conditions were not met to welcome the public in complete safety in the face of threats of demonstrations and gathering” on the sidelines of the evening, specifies the comedian’s production in a press release relayed by The voice of the North.
Questioned by the regional daily, the director of the Sebastopol theater, Guy Marseguerra, said he was “relatively happy” with this cancellation. “I tend to believe all these women. And if it hadn’t been canceled, we would have canceled it ourselves, on principle, even if it would have been difficult,” he says.
Numerous testimonies collected
Last January, Belgian comedian Florence Mendez broke her silence and revealed on Instagram that she had received testimonies from 31 women denouncing Seb Mellia’s behavior.
In a survey published at the beginning of March by the magazine Telerama, eleven women also testified to actions committed between 2010 and 2022 by Seb Mellia, some even accusing him of sexual assault or rape. Three of them are also comedians and the other eight are spectators of his one-man shows.
Three of the women who accuse the comedian have announced their intention to file a complaint for the acts they accuse him of.
“Shocked and devastated” by the accusations
Seb Mellia, for his part, denies these accusations and affirms – through the voice of his lawyer – “having never heard of any suffering or any grievance on the part of a partner, and even less of a accusation of rape or other criminal conduct.”
On Instagram at the end of January, the comedian said he was “shocked and devastated” by the accusations against him and denounced a “manhunt”. He nevertheless apologized for having “may have offended some of (his) partners in the past, and without meaning to do so through inappropriate behavior”.
If his lawyer specifies that to his knowledge, “no complaint has been filed” against Seb Mellia, she nevertheless assures La Voix du Nord that the comedian “has taken action against Florence Mendez that he sues not only for public defamation but also for cyberharassment.
Since the start of the affair, several demonstrations by feminist activists have disrupted Seb Mellia’s shows in Brussels, Bordeaux and Clermont in an attempt to have them canceled. In Lille, a branch of the #NousToutes collective had “called (…) to send emails to the Sébastopol theater to request the cancellation of the show”, specifies La Voix du Nord.
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