Prosecutor: Gérard Depardieu must stand trial for alleged sexual assault

PARIS – French film legend Gérard Depardieu will go on trial next October for alleged sexual assaults on two women during the filming of a movie in 2021, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday.

Depardieu, one of France’s biggest film stars, has been at the centre of a growing number of sexual assault allegations in recent years that have tarnished his reputation and exposed wider divisions over sexual behaviour in France.

The prosecutor said the actor was also charged in another case dating back to August 2018, involving alleged sexual assault and rape. The judge closed the investigation into that case and handed it over to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

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Depardieu was arrested for questioning on Monday in connection with the alleged sexual assault, police sources said.

Lawyers for Depardieu, who has always denied any wrongdoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two senior police sources told Reuters that Depardieu was being held for questioning at a police station in Paris’ 14th arrondissement. One of his lawyers, Christian Saint-Palais, later told BFM TV that the actor had been released without charge.

Investigators are looking into alleged groping by Depardieu on two film sets, with one case allegedly occurring in 2014 and the other in 2021, one of the sources said.

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Neither the Paris police nor the public prosecutor’s office wanted to comment.

The Depardieu case has become a dividing line in French society. For some women, it is a symbol of the country’s inability to address sexual abuse by powerful men in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Others, including French President Emmanuel Macron and several well-known actors, rushed to his aid.

“He is a great actor, a genius in his field,” Macron said late last year. “He makes France proud.”

Reporting by Reuters Paris news desk. Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Juliette Jabkhiro, writing by Gabriel Stargardter, editing by Nick Macfie and Tomasz Janowski.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gérard Depardieu faces trial on sexual assault charges