France’s highest appeals court dismissed rape allegations that had been made against Lucy and The Fifth Element director Luc Besson on Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Luc Besson’s lawyer celebrates the decision
The court of cassation rejected an appeal by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy on Wednesday, after her initial claim that she had been sexually assaulted by Besson was dismissed in 2021.
Roy first brought up her encounter with Besson in 2018, when she alleged that Besson had raped her at the Le Bristol luxury hotel in Paris.
Roy had featured in small roles in some of Besson’s films, including Taxi 5, and had been in a relationship with the director for two years. Following Roy’s admission, eight additional women would also come forward with their own stories about having been assaulted or harassed in some form by the director.
In a statement to THR, Besson’s lawyer Thierry Marembert said that the ruling “confirms the dismissal in favor of Luc Besson and confirms all the decisions of the last five years which have found him not guilty. 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. As a lawyer, I welcome this exemplary procedure, which has allowed the manifestation of the truth which is that Luc Besson is innocent.”
