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PARIS – French actor Gerard Depardieu will face criminal trial in October over the alleged sexual assault of two women on the set of the 2021 film “The Green Shutters,” prosecutors announced Monday.
The announcement came after the 75-year-old actor was detained for several hours for questioning by police in Paris early Monday.
This is a breaking news update. The back story of is given below.
PARIS – French police detained actor Gerard Depardieu for several hours on Monday as he was being questioned over allegations from two women that he sexually assaulted them on a film set, amid media reports.
The 75-year-old actor was summoned by Paris police on Monday morning and detained, broadcaster BFMTV and daily Le Parisien reported.
Depardieu has previously denied any wrongdoing. The actor’s lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, later told reporters at a police station in the 14th district of Paris: “The police custody is over. He will no longer be kept at the police station,” but declined to comment further.
The Paris police force said it was not authorized to comment and directed questions to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which said it had no comment “at this stage.”
“We have no information to communicate or confirm before assessing any final charges and referrals,” the office said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.
An attorney for one of the alleged victims did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
In an open letter last October, Depardieu said: “I have never abused any woman.”
BFMTV and Le Parisien reported that the police summons is related to sexual harassment allegations filed by two women who have accused him of groping during filming – one in 2014, the other in 2021.
The alleged 2014 attack was reported to police in January this year, Le Parisien reports.
The second alleged attack involved a 53-year-old movie decorator. According to the woman’s lawyer, Karine Durieu Diebault, when she filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, she alleged that Depardieu had grabbed her during the shooting of “Les Volantes Verts” or “The Green Shutters” and touched her waist, stomach and other parts of her body. And pressed the breasts. in February.
Depardieu has also been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. He was initially charged with rape and sexual assault in 2020 following allegations by actor Charlotte Arnold.
Depardieu was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador of French film and has gained international fame with numerous roles in Hollywood.
The latest episode involving Depardieu comes as French cinema has been rocked by a #metoo awakening after actor Judith Godreche called on the French film industry to “face the truth” on sexual violence and physical abuse. He made the appeal in February during a live broadcast of the Cesar Awards ceremony, France’s version of the Oscars.
Writers Barbara Sark in Nice, France, and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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