Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Bassa announced on Tuesday that she had filed a lawsuit in Spain against French actor Gerard Depardieu, accusing him of raping her in 1995 in Paris.
The 51-year-old writer confirmed to Agence France-Presse what was reported by “La Vanguardia” that she filed a lawsuit with the Spanish police last Thursday against the French actor, in which she stated that he raped her while she was interviewing him in Paris for the magazine “Cinemania” on October 12, 1995.
Ruth Bassa indicated in the lawsuit that Depardieu, who was forty-six while she was twenty-three, deliberately “assaulted” her without her expressing “any consent at any time.”
She said that she felt as if she was “paralyzed” during the incident, which she indicated took place at the headquarters of the former Rawasi Films production company.
The crime of “sexual assault” in the Spanish Penal Code also includes rape. In her statement to Agence France-Presse, Ruth Bassa described the incident attributed to Depardieu as a “sexual assault,” but responded positively to a question about whether it was rape, noting that “the police described it as such.”
Neither the Spanish police nor the Public Prosecution wanted to confirm that Bassa had filed the lawsuit, which is the third since 2018 against the actor related to a case of sexual violence. The journalist told Agence France-Presse that she had forgotten the incident “completely” before she read the investigative report published by the French news site Mediapart in April, in which 13 women accused the actor of sexual violence against them.
She added that this article created for her an “inner motivation” and “flashes” of memory confirmed by personal notes she wrote down at the time and said she had found.
However, the chances of success of this lawsuit are slim, as the plaintiff’s right has already lapsed due to the passage of time, according to French laws.
