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French actor Gérard Depardieu was charged with rape and sexual assault in December in a 2018 case that was revived by authorities.
The Paris prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Depardieu was not being held when he received the preliminary charges on December 16.
The prosecutor’s office addressed the charges after the case leaked to French media.
French media said the charges relate to allegations by an actress in her twenties dating back to 2018. An initial investigation against the star was dropped in 2019 due to lack of evidence, but was later relaunched.
FRENCH ACTOR GERARD DEPARDIEU ACCUSED OF RAPE
French newspaper Le Parisien and broadcaster BFM TV said the woman alleged that Depardieu assaulted her on August 7 and 13, 2018 at her home in Paris. The two met when Depardieu led a masterclass at his school, BFM TV reported.
The actress, who has not been named, first filed a complaint with details of allegations of rape and assault in August 2018 in the city of Aix-en-Provence, in southern France . The investigation was taken up by Parisian investigators but was quickly abandoned.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday, commenting on the accusations after their disclosure to the French press, saying that French actor Gérard Depardieu was charged with rape and sexual assault on December 16, 2020, without the actor being arrested.
(AP Photo / Thibault Camus, file)
Depardieu’s lawyer, Hervé Temime, did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment, but previously said the actor “absolutely denies any rape, any sexual assault, any crime.”
Depardieu, 72, is one of France’s best known and most controversial stars.
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He has appeared in 200 films over six decades and is one of the few French actors who have made a name for themselves in Hollywood. He won a Golden Globe for his performance in “Green Card,” a 1990 English-language romantic comedy starring Andie MacDowell.
His first big success in France was “Les Valseuses” (“Going Places”), Bertrand Blier’s classic farce about two wandering thugs.
Before crossing the Atlantic to star in “Green Card”, Depardieu played a variety of roles, ranging from Jean Valjean, the thief turned saint in “Les Misérables”, to Christopher Columbus.
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In 2014, he played the main role in “Welcome to New York”, the film based on the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former director of the International Monetary Fund who was accused in 2011 of having sexually assaulted a woman of hotel room.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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