Rape charges against Gerard Depardieu upheld

A Paris court has denied a request to drop charges against the renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu, 73, who was placed under investigation in 2020 after a young actress accused him of having raped and sexual assaulted her three years prior.

Chief Prosecutor Remy Heitz said there was “serious and confirmed evidence that justifies Gerard Depardieu to remain charged” in the case filed by actress Charlotte Arnould.

Arnould filed the complaint against Depardieu in the summer of 2018, when she was 22 years old, claiming she had twice been raped at the actor’s mansion in Paris.

The actor was charged in December 2020 and placed under judicial supervision, avoiding jail. He has repeatedly dismissed the charges against him as baseless and demanded they be dropped. 

Depardieu is one of France’s most iconic movie stars, rising to prominence in the 1980s with roles in films such as ‘The Last Metro’, ‘Green Card’, and ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’. In 2013, he took up Russian citizenship and now numbers Russian President Vladimir Putin among his friends.

The actor recently denounced the Russian military operation in Ukraine and called for peaceful negotiations, saying: “I am against this fratricidal war. I say, ‘Stop the weapons and negotiate.’”