Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been ordered to stand trial in France for allegedly defaming a British actress who accused him of sexual abuse. The 89-year-old Franco-Polish director has faced a series of sexual assault claims, though he has never been tried in France.
The defamation case was filed by Charlotte Lewis, who starred in Polanski's 1986 film "Pirates".
In 2010 she had accused him of sexually abusing her at his Paris apartment in the 1980s, when she was 16 years old.
In an interview with Paris Match magazine in 2019, Polanski called Lewis a "liar" and a "fabulist”.
Polanski pointed to quotes attributed to Lewis in a 1999 interview with the British tabloid News of the World, in which she expressed her desire for him – quotes she said were not accurate.
A 30 August order sent the case to the Paris correctional tribunal for an unspecified date. Such a referral is almost automatic in such cases, where the accusations can be examined in a hearing.
Trial 'welcome'
When Polanski was charged in Paris in October, his lawyer said he welcomed a trial as a way of bringing out the truth.
Polanski settled in his native France after running from charges in the United States for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
France has refused to extradite him back to the US, and attempts to get Switzerland and Poland to hand him over also failed.
Polanski has also been accused of other sexual assaults, which he denies.
In 2019, French photographer Valentine Monnier accused Polanski of raping her in his Swiss chalet in 1975 when she was 18 and working as a model and actress.
She said he tried to give her a pill as he beat her "into submission".
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, French film stars including actress Adele Haenel walked out of France's annual Césars awards ceremony in 2020 after Polanski was awarded for his film "An Officer and a Spy", to protest against celebrating someone who had been accused of sexual assault.
(with AFP)
