UPDATED with trial and date particulars: French actor will stand trial in October on prices of sexual assault allegedly dedicated towards two ladies on the set of the movie The Inexperienced Shutters in 2021, the Paris Public Prosecutor mentioned on Monday.
The announcement got here after Depardieu was taken into police custody on Monday morning for questioning on sexual assault accusations.
“On the finish of his police custody on the third judicial police district, Gérard Depardieu was given a summons to seem earlier than the legal courtroom… for sexual assaults more likely to have been dedicated in September 2021 towards two victims, on the set of the movie The Inexperienced Shutters,” the prosecut specified the prosecution.
Native media stories mentioned that the actor had been known as in for questioning on accusations associated to occasions on the units of Jean-Pierre Mocky’s Le Magicien et les Siamois in 2014, and Jean Becker’s The Inexperienced Shutters (Volets Verts) in 2021.
The Paris Public Prosecutor mentioned October’s trial can be in relation to 2 separate accusations associated to the shoot of The Inexperienced Shutters. There was no point out of allegations associated to the 2014 movie shoot.
Earlier within the night, Depardieu’s lawyer Christian Saint-Palais’ confirmed his shopper’s police audition however mentioned he had since left the police station.
He mentioned the audition was a routine a part of the judicial course of and that Depardieu disputed the allegations.
“When an individual is implicated, inevitably, there comes a time after they have to elucidate themselves. And so in the present day was a kind of days the place he needed to clarify the accusations made towards him and which he disputes,” he informed press gathered outdoors the police station.
He didn’t say whether or not Depardieu can be returning for additional questioning.
Depardieu already faces an official grievance of two acts of rape relationship again to 2018 by actress Charlotte Arnould, which is presently making its means by the courts.
The actor vehemently denied the rape allegations and mounting sexual assault accusations towards him in an open letter revealed in Le Figaro newspaper final October, suggesting his acts had been misinterpreted.
The letter got here within the wake of rising numbers of accusations towards him.
In April 2023, 13 ladies accused the actor of sexually inappropriate conduct in an in-depth report revealed by French investigative information web site Médiapart.
Two months after the open letter, Depardieu got here below additional public scrutiny in France following the published on December 7 of a bombshell version of investigative present Complément d’Enquête, which probed these historic accusations in addition to different acts of inappropriate conduct.
Deadline has contacted Depardieu’s lawyer Beatrice Geissmann Achille for touch upon the accusations towards the actor and his detention however has but to listen to again.
Depardieu’s case has divided the French cinema world with 50 French leisure personalities posting an open letter in help of the actor in December, saying they had been towards the “lynching” and cancelling of the actor.
French President Emmanuel Macron additionally spoke up in protection of Depardieu, saying he was a terrific admirer of the actor and suggesting he was topic to a witch hunt.
The open letter and Macron’s feedback had been met with a counter open letter signed by 600 French artwork and leisure world figures, which mentioned they had been a slap within the face for all victims of sexual violence.