Luc Besson has been cleared of rape accusations leveled by an actress with whom he had an intimate relationship after a French court rejected her final appeals.
“This decision confirms the dismissal in favor of Luc Besson and confirms all the decisions of the last five years which have found him not guilty,” his lawyer, Thierry Marembert, said in a statement to TheWrap.
A French court initially dismissed the accusation in 2019. Marembert said the latest decision, from France’s highest appeals court, finally puts the matter to rest.
“It therefore puts a definitive end to this procedure initiated in 2018, during which Luc Besson was systematically cleared by all the magistrates who examined the case,” the statement said. “As a lawyer, I welcome this exemplary procedure, which has allowed the manifestation of the truth which is that Luc Besson is innocent.”
The Paris court rejected an appeal filed by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, who had a small part in “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” She had initially claimed in 2018 that Besson, with whom she said she had a two-year intimate relationship, drugged and raped her at a luxury hotel in Paris.
Besson had maintained all along that he had done nothing wrong. He was questioned by authorities but prosecutors dropped the matter, citing lack of evidence; the matter caused eight additional women to come forward with accusations, but none has ever been prosecuted.
