Final point in France in one of the most emblematic cases of
The plaintiff, Sand Van Roy, immediately reacted on Twitter: “Once again, […] French justice refuses to look into evidence in the file. “I am continuing the ongoing proceedings and I will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights,” she added. The 35-year-old Belgian-Dutch actress filed a complaint for rape on May 18, 2018, a few hours after an appointment in a Parisian palace, the protagonists of which gave two different versions. For Sand Van Roy, the influential filmmaker had imposed on him digital penetration, a source of fainting, despite his injunctions to stop. A version according to her accredited by findings, the day of the facts, by the medico-judicial emergencies.
This decision is in line with the constant positioning of justice in this case: these charges had been dismissed in December 2021, confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2022. The magistrates of the Court of Appeal had brushed aside the testimonies of three women obtained during the investigation and challenged by Mr. Besson, who spoke of “kisses on the neck” up to an “attempted rape” under possible threat of professional retaliation . Other women had also testified to Mediapart about inappropriate gestures or sexual assaults, often prescribed, on the part of the director. In its appeal, the actress’s defense considered that the judgment was tainted with procedural irregularities, would have “distorted” certain elements of the file, and would also and above all have endorsed an “unfair” procedure from its origin.
During a hearing on May 24, the public rapporteur and the general counsel had proposed the non-admissibility of the appeal, considering that the defense called into question the “sovereign assessment” of the court of appeal, that its arguments were not were not serious and that the Court of Cassation had no right to rule on the need for an additional investigation.
In addition to the appeal to the ECHR to come, Sand Van Roy has opened another front by filing a complaint for rape in Belgium against Luc Besson. The Belgian Constitutional Court should rule at the end of 2023 on the admissibility of this complaint.
According to the actress’s lawyer, Me Antoine Gitton, Belgian justice said in an October decision “that there are sufficient inculpatory evidence to justify a substantive debate” in court, and “justice French did not seek the truth effectively at all”. His client “continues the fight very calmly, especially in Belgium”, according to him.