French director and filmmaker Luc Besson has been definitively cleared of all charges in the rape case involving actress Sand Van Roy.
The Cour de Cassation, the French equivalent to the Supreme Court, issued the ruling on Wednesday, according to a court document obtained by Variety.
“After examining the admissibility of the appeal and the files from the instruction, the Cour de Cassation has determined that there doesn’t exist, at present, any means to allow for the admission of the appeal,” the court document reads.
Luc Besson — the French filmmaker behind ‘The Professional,’ ‘The Fifth Element,’ and ‘La Femme Nikita’ — has been cleared of all charges in the alleged rape of actress Sand Van Roy. https://t.co/j5mDkyzjJn
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) June 21, 2023
Additionally, Van Roy has reportedly been ordered to pay Besson €2,500 as part of the ruling.
The actress had claimed that she and Besson had an abusive affair that began on the shoot of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and that it led to a rape on the night of May 17, 2018, at the Bristol Hotel in Paris.
Besson’s legal battle began after Van Roy filed police complaints in May and July 2018. But after a nine-month investigation, the case was dismissed by the Paris prosecutor, who citied a lack of evidence.
After that, the actress filed a civil complaint on the same charges, which was again dismissed, this time, following a three-year investigation into the matter, which concluded December 2021.
The second, lengthy investigation reportedly involved hearings with witnesses, including Besson’s ex-wife, actress Maïwenn — with whom he has a daughter — and his former partner actress Anne Parillaud, with whom he has two children.
The ruling clears Besson of all charges in this case and prohibits Van Roy from suing him on the same charges in France or anywhere else in Europe.
“This decision confirms the dismissal in favor of Luc Besson and confirms all the decisions of the last five years which have found him not guilty,” Besson’s attorney, Thierry Marambert, told Variety.
“It therefore puts a definitive end to this procedure initiated in 2018, during which Luc Besson was systematically cleared by all the magistrates who examined the case,” Marambert added.
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