Roman Polanski will be tried in France for defamation
A complaint from actress Charlotte Lewis targets remarks where the filmmaker questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse of which she accuses him.
Roman Polanski has never been tried so far in France in a case relating to these accusations of sexual abuse. Cannes, May 27, 2017.
KEYSTONE/AP Photo/Alastair Gran
A defamation lawsuit in Paris has been ordered against Roman Polanski following a complaint by actress Charlotte Lewis for remarks in which the filmmaker questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse of which she accuses him, AFP has learned Wednesday from a source familiar with the matter.
An order of August 30 refers to the Paris Criminal Court, on a date not yet fixed, Roman Polanski, 89, never tried until then in France in a file relating to these accusations of sexual abuse. In press law, referral to court is almost automatic in such a procedure and the merits of the charges are examined at the hearing.
Solicited, Roman Polanski’s lawyers, My Hervé Temime and Delphine Meillet, did not wish to comment and “reserve their explanations for the court”. The second added that she “did not know if Roman Polanski intended to appear” or would be represented at the hearing.
Charlotte Lewis in Los Angeles, May 14, 2010.
KEYSTONE/AP Photo/Reed Saxon
The publication director of “Paris Match”, who had published the interview in questionwill also be judged in this case.
In a long interview published by the weekly in December 2019, Roman Polanski declared in particular: “You see, the first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory. Charlotte Lewis is always mentioned in the list of my accusers without ever noting these contradictions”.
“It’s almost time for the hearing. We await it with envy and serenity”, welcomed Wednesday Me Benjamin Chouai, lawyer for the British actress with Me Fabrice Epstein. He had filed a complaint with civil action in March 2020.
“Contradictions”
Charlotte Lewis, born in 1967, had shot in the film “Pirates” directed by Roman Polanski in 1986. In 2010, she claimed in Los Angeles to have been “sexually abused” by the filmmaker, in his Paris apartment in the early 1980s , when she was 16 years old.
Roman Polanski and Charlotte Lewis in Cannes, May 8, 1986.
AFP/DERRICK CEYRAC-RALPH GATTI-CHRISTOPHE SIMON
But Roman Polanski, targeted by other accusations of rape, evokes in his interview with “Paris Match” of 2019 “contradictions” with his remarks of 2010 and a “odious lie” on the part of Miss Lewis, mentioning an interview which she granted in 1999 to the British tabloid “News of the World”.
“Many of the quotes attributed to me in the News of the World article are not accurate.”
The filmmaker underlined the following sentence attributed to Charlotte Lewis in 1999: “I knew that Roman had done something bad in the United States, but I wanted to be his mistress (…). I probably wanted it more than he wanted it.”
The actress, however, challenged the veracity of these past remarks in 2010. “Many of the quotes attributed to me in the News of the World article are not accurate,” she said.
In February 2020, Roman Polanski received the César for best director for “J’accuse”.
AFP
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