French actor Gérard Depardieu was released from police custody early Monday evening. He was taken into custody in connection with accusations of sexually assaulting two women, AFP reported. BFM TV previously reported on the summons for questioning, according to which the alleged assaults should have taken place during the filming of films in 2014 and 2021. The Paris prosecutor’s office later announced that he would face trial in this case in October. One of the most famous living French actors has denied guilt for a long time.
According to BFM TV, the detention began on Monday at eight in the morning. By law, the police could detain a suspect for 24 hours and possibly extend the detention to 48 hours. However, Depardieu was released shortly before 6:30 p.m., BFM TV reported. “Police custody is over. He is no longer being held at the police station,” AP quoted lawyer Christian Saint-Palais as saying in the evening.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced in the evening that Depardieu is due to appear in court in October this year. At the end of his detention in the third police court district, he received a summons.
In March, a woman filed a criminal complaint against the actor, according to which the sexual assault happened in September 2021 during the filming of Les volets verts (The Green Shutters), where the woman worked as a set designer. She claims that Depardieu brutally grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts. The attack was interrupted by the actor’s security. The now 53-year-old claims Depardieu held her with “tremendous force” and insulted her, calling her a “slut” for the rest of the shoot.
The second accusation, which, according to BFM TV, was also the subject of questioning at the police station in Paris, relates to an incident that, according to the woman’s statement, happened on the set of the short film Magicien et les Siamois (The Magician and the Siamese) in 2014. At the time, the 24-year-old assistant asked the actor explicit sexual proposals and Depardieu touched her in her private parts, according to her.
Similar reports have been filed against Depardieu by several women. Some notifications were postponed by the French judiciary because they were time-barred.
Over sixty artists supported the actor
Last December, around six dozen French artists supported the actor in an open letter. Among the signatories is, for example, his actor colleague Pierre Richard or the singer and former first lady of France Carla Bruniová.
The artists are decrying the flood of hatred that they say has descended on Depardieu despite the presumption of innocence, and write that cutting him off from the world of film would be the death of art.
