Luc Besson Cleared of Rape Allegations by French Court

France’s highest appeals court, the court of cassation, on Wednesday dismissed rape accusations leveled at director and producer Luc Besson (Lucy, The Fifth Element) by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy.

The Paris court rejected an appeal lodged by Von Roy after her initial claimant alleging she had been sexually assaulted by Besson was dismissed in 2021. In May 2018, Van Roy alleged she had been raped by Besson at the Le Bristol luxury hotel in Paris. The Belgian-Dutch actress has had small roles in Besson’s Taxi 5 and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and had been in an intimate relationship with the director for two years.

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In a statement sent to The Hollywood Reporter, Besson’s lawyer, Thierry Marembert said 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.”

Besson had always maintained his innocence. The director was questioned by police on Oct. 2 and Dec. 11 in 2018 in relation to the case, but prosecutors dropped their initial probe in February 2019 citing a lack of evidence. Following Van Roy’s initial complaint, eight additional women came forward saying they had been assaulted or harassed by the director over the years. In October 2019, a judge ordered a second investigation in the Van Roy case, but in 2021 the director was cleared of all charges.

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