The Court of Cassation examined the Besson case on Wednesday. The supreme judicial body will rule on June 21 on the need for a further investigation into the accusations of rape that actress Sand Van Roy brings against Luc Besson. The director denies the facts and the complaint of the actress has already been the subject of a dismissal, decision confirmed by the Court of Appeal.
On May 18, 2018, the 35-year-old Belgian-Dutch actress filed a complaint for rape, a few hours after a meeting in a Parisian palace whose protagonists gave two versions. Two months later, 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 "relationship of professional control" under threats of "retaliation on her acting career".
The judicial investigation was the subject of a first dismissal in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022. The actress' defence appealed to the Court of Cassation against this last decision because it would be tainted by procedural irregularities, would have "distorted" certain elements of the file, and would also and above all have endorsed an "unfair" procedure since its origin, to the detriment of the actress.
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At a hearing on Wednesday, the rapporteur proposed that the appeal not be allowed, considering in particular that the defence questioned the "sovereign assessment" of the Court of Appeal, that its arguments were not serious and that the highest French judicial court did not have the right to rule on the need for a further investigation.
The Advocate General also advocated non-admission, taking up an argument comparable to that of the rapporteur. "Luc Besson calmly awaits the decision of the Court of Cassation, which will follow all the decisions that have already been rendered and which have all recognized his innocence," said Tuesday his lawyer Thierry Marembert. He welcomed the fact that the reporting adviser of the Court of Cassation and the Advocate General considered the pleas raised by Sand Van Roy "devoid of seriousness".
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The work of justice is more literature than cinema. After the lost time, we wait very serenely for a judicial time found, here or there, "said Antoine Gitton, lawyer of the actress. The actress has also filed a complaint for rape in Belgium against Luc Besson. The Belgian Constitutional Court is expected to rule in October 2023 on the admissibility of this complaint.
