French prosecutors seek to dismiss rape case against movie mogul Luc Besson | Channel

• French prosecutors are seeking to
  dismiss a rape case against film director Luc Besson.
• Belgian-Dutch actors Sand Van Roy
  filed a rape complaint on 18 May 2018.
• The 62-year-old has repeatedly
  denied the allegations at the time he said, “I have never raped a woman in
  my life. I have never raised a hand to a woman.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office on Friday
sought the dismissal of a rape case brought by an actor against acclaimed
French film director Luc Besson, AFP learned from a judicial source.

Famed for films such as
Subway, The Big Blue, and Nikita, Besson’s
fate will be decided by an investigating judge in charge of the case.

The 62-year-old has never been
charged but was given the status of assisted witness under the French legal
system, which falls short of being formally charged.

Besson’s lawyer Thierry Marembert
told AFP that a ruling by the judge there was no case to answer would be
“consistent with the reality of the case and the investigation”.

He said his client had always
denied any wrongdoing and wanted to close this chapter of his life and
“resume a normal life”.

One of accuser Sand Van Roy’s
lawyers, Francis Szpiner, called the move – first reported in Le Parisien
newspaper – a “legal scandal”.

The Belgian-Dutch actor filed a
rape complaint on 18 May 2018 against the influential French producer and
director, a day after a meeting in Paris.

Two months later, she made
accusations about other rapes and sexual assaults she alleged had been
committed during a two-year-long “professional relationship” with the
filmmaker.

These complaints were dismissed in
February 2019 by the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Besson has repeatedly denied rape.

“I have never raped a woman
in my life. I have never raised a hand to a woman. I have never threatened a
woman,” he said in 2019.

“I have never physically or
morally coerced a woman into anything, he added.

READ MORE | ‘I’ve never raped a woman,’ says French director Besson