Luc Besson Cleared of All Charges in Rape Case

Samantha Bergeson
·4 min read
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Luc Besson has been cleared of all rape charges from a 2018 case involving actress Sand Van Roy.

The “Léon, the Professional” director was accused of raping the Dutch-Belgian actress multiple times over the course of two years. The Van Roy case against Besson was dismissed in 2021 after an investigation, but the legal charges are now officially dropped by the highest court in France as of June 21, 2023.

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“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,” Besson’s attorney Thierry Marambert said in a statement to IndieWire. “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.”

The Cour de Cassation, the country’s equivalent to the Supreme Court, formally dismissed all charges against Besson in the fourth and final judicial instruction for the case after first being dismissed in February 2019 following a nine-month investigation into Van Roy’s claims, citing a lack of evidence.

The actress later filed a civil complaint on the same charges in March 2019, and it was dismissed again after a wide-spanning investigation in December 2021 and involved hearings with witnesses, including Besson’s ex-wife Maïwenn and his former partner Anne Parillaud. Besson shares a daughter with Maïwenn and two children with Parillaud.

Van Roy appealed for a second time, with the case now being closed. The ruling from the Cour de Cassation clears Besson of all charges and prevents Van Roy from suing him on the same charges in France or elsewhere in Europe (Van Roy previously attempted to file a lawsuit in Belgium to no avail).

Van Roy, who starred in Besson’s “Valerian,” alleged that she had an abusive relationship with the filmmaker; the actress accused Besson of raping her in a Paris hotel room on May 17, 2018. Since 2018, Besson has been accused of sexual assault by nine different women, including Van Roy, who is the only one to have filed charges.

Besson and his attorney have “categorically denied all the accusations made against him” over the course of the last five years since the first assault claims were made public. Besson’s ex-wife Maïwenn, whose “Jeanne du Barry” recently opened the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, has further addressed the allegations against Besson.

Maïwenn married Besson in 1992 when she was 16 years old. Besson first met Maïwenn when she was 12, and the couple began dating when the actress was 15. Maïwenn said during the 1994 DVD extras for controversial film “Léon, the Professional” that the film’s central relationship was inspired by her and Besson’s love story. The couple divorced in 1997.

In February 2023, Maïwenn was accused of assaulting French journalist Edwy Plenel, who is the Mediapart magazine editor-in-chief, the publication which first published many of the accusations against Besson. Mediapart published Maïwenn’s testimony to police regarding the allegations against Besson; Maïwenn confirmed that she felt “morally violated” by the article.

“I don’t blame Mediapart for their investigations into Luc Besson; I blame them for what they have done to me,” she said, citing the assault against Plenel. “There’s no justification for attacking a journalist, but there’s no justification for violating a woman’s intimacy and trust.”

Per Maïwenn, the filmmaker and actress met with a Mediapart journalist in late 2018 for an off-the-record conversation regarding Besson. Maïwenn additionally testified during Van Roy’s investigation in June 2020 on the order of the court. In early 2021, Paris Match and Mediapart published excerpts from Maïwenn’s testimony without notifying her, despite Mediapart previously promising to give her 48 hours’ notice for the sake of her daughter with Besson. Maïwenn filed a civil suit against Paris Match and lost; she opted to not file a claim against Mediapart.

Besson is set to produce upcoming action film “Weekend Escape Project” starring Luke Evans and Gwei Lun-mei, as also announced this week following the assault case being dismissed.

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