Gerard Depardieu has requested for a postponement to his sexual assault trial that was set to begin in Paris on Monday, citing nicely being causes.
In response to the French info firm AFP, Depardieu’s lawyer Jeremie Assous suggested FranceInfo that the actor is “terribly affected and sadly his medical medical doctors have forbidden him from being present on the listening to.”
Assous continued that Depardieu “will ask for a postponement to a later date so that he can attend.” His trial was set to begin at 1:30 p.m. Paris time on Monday.
Depardieu’s lawyer didn’t immediately reply to Choice‘s request for extra comment.
Depardieu is being tried on two alleged sexual assaults, which date once more to the filming of Jean Becker’s “The Inexperienced Shutters” (“Les volets verts”) inside the South of France in August and September 2021. He was taken into police custody earlier this 12 months on April 29 and was summoned to look sooner than the felony court docket docket on Monday. Based totally on the prices, Depardieu — prolonged thought-about a mascot of France’s cinematic historic previous who has starred in over 150 motion pictures, along with classics akin to Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” — risks 5 years of imprisonment and a constructive of €75,000.
In a letter despatched to the prosecutor on Feb. 23, Amelie Okay., who labored as a set decorator on “The Inexperienced Shutters,” accused Depardieu of getting sexually assaulted and harassed her on Sept. 10, 2021, all through filming. Amelie Okay talked about she overheard Depardieu make plenty of crude suggestions, and alleges that in some unspecified time in the future, as she walked earlier him sitting in a corridor, he grabbed her, pulled her in direction of him, blocked her alongside along with his legs and kneaded her on the waist, hips and chest, whereas making obscene suggestions.
She added that she was helped by two colleagues whereas Depardieu left the scene accompanied by his bodyguards. After reporting the incident to the manufacturing supervisor, Depardieu was requested to apologize to her nonetheless in its place made unfriendly remarks about her all through the rest of the shoot.
“The plaintiff outlined that it had taken her some time to resolve to lodge a criticism, nonetheless that she had been shocked to take heed to on television that there had under no circumstances been any incident by the filming. She added that she was not the one one to have been sexually assaulted,” talked about a spokesperson for the Paris Prosecutor’s Office in a press launch obtained by Choice.
A second woman, Engela W., who was working as Becker’s assistant on “The Inexperienced Shutters,” accused Depardieu of sexually assaulting her on Aug. 31. She lodged a criticism on March 21 of this 12 months and reported that Depardieu had touched her buttocks on the road, then touched her breasts only a few days afterward location and touched her buttocks as soon as extra on one different occasion. Having expressed her refusal to be touched, she added that Depardieu had started being insulting in direction of her. She reported the incident to her family the similar day.
Choice has contacted Depardieu’s authorized skilled, Jérémie Assous, for contact upon the trial’s finish outcome. Depardieu has beforehand denied all bills. In a press launch despatched to Choice ahead of the trial, Assous talked about, “the witnesses and proof he’ll present will present that he’s merely the objective of false accusations.” Assous moreover claimed that the “true intent has merely been revealed by the civil occasions’ compensation requires: to understand financially, ranging from €6,000 to €30,000.”
As part of a separate case, the 75-year-old well-known French actor has been, since Dec. 16, 2020, indicted over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by actress Charlotte Arnould in 2018.
In August, the Paris public prosecutor’s office requested in a final indictment that Depardieu be referred to the departmental felony court docket docket to face trial for rape by digital penetration and sexual assault that allegedly occurred on Aug. 7 and 13, 2018. The inspecting magistrate now has to resolve what path to current to the proceedings.
One different sexual assault criticism filed remaining 12 months by actor Helene Darras, who accused Depardieu of groping and propositioning her all through a 2007 film shoot, has since been dropped for being earlier the statute of limitations.
In April of ultimate 12 months, 13 girls accused the actor of sexually inappropriate conduct in a report printed by French investigative info web page Médiapart. Depardieu vehemently denied all the accusations, and in October penned a letter for the newspaper Le Figaro throughout which he acknowledged, “On no account ever have I abused a woman.”
Having triggered a watershed second for the #MeToo movement in France, Depardieu, who up until 2022 was nonetheless lining up roles, has seen his career come to an in depth to complete. Throughout the remaining couple years, he appears to have solely acted in a small Italian horror film known as “Twins,” which is in post-production.
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