French actor Gérard Depardieu condemned, sentenced for sexually assaulting 2 women in the film set

Paris -The icon of French cinema Gérard Depardieu was sentenced Tuesday for sexually assaulting two women in a film set in Paris in 2021 and delivered a suspended sentence of 18 months. The 76 -year -old actor had denied the charges that he groped to an established decorator and an assistant producer in the “Les Volets Varts” set (“The Green Shutters”).

Depardieu was not in court for the verdict or sentence on Tuesday, since he is currently filming in Portugal. His lawyer said he would appeal the verdict.

Depardieu was accused of an established decorator, 34, and an assistant producer, 54, who said the actor grabbed them at the filming in Paris in August and September 2021.

“I am deeply moved, I am very happy with this decision,” said the assistant producer, identified in the court alone as Amélie, said after Tuesday’s decision was transmitted. “It’s a victory for me, a step forward. I feel justice served.”

Taking the position in March for the first time, Depardieu told the Court that it did not look at the man described by the two women.

“I don’t see why I would put a woman, her buttocks, her breasts,” he said. “I am not someone who rubs against people in the subway.”

The two women did not immediately report the alleged crimes, but after the Depardieu published an open letter in the newspaper Le Figaro in October 2023 in which he declared: “Never, I have never abused a woman,” the designer went to the police. Depardieu reported for alleged sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults.

The trial opened in October, but it was Defardieu’s failed health due to the failed health. His lawyer told the Court in March that Depardieu was diabetic and that he had undergone quadruple-bypass cardiac surgery.

The medical experts later considered him suitable for attending the trial, but limited the hearings at six hours per day, with a disposition for 15 -minute break if Depardieu needed them.

“Gérard Depardieu is someone who is very free, who can be extremely direct,” said his lawyer Jérémie Asous, who dismissed the accusations as “lies.”

Dozens of protesters, mostly women, gathered outside the court in March, denouncing what they called endemic sexism and impunity for sexual criminals in French cinema and French society. They said they were happy that the actor was finally in court to answer the accusations, and waved banners with messages that include: “victims, we believe; rapists, see you”; “Touch one, you answer everyone.”

A French cinema giant, Depardieu has been more infamous than famous in recent years. He has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior for more than a dozen women in the film industry. However, many of the statements arose years after the alleged incidents took place, so according to French law, the actor cannot be judged by them.

In a high profile movement, the actor left his native France for a few years ago approximately a decade, moving Belgium, having criticized French tax increases.

Depardieu has been opened about his admiration for Russia under the autocratic president Vladimir Putin, who gave him Russian citizenship in 2013.

Later he also became a citizen of Dubai.

In:
• Hollywood
• Cinema
• Rape
• sexual harassment
• Gerard Depardieu
• Sexual aggression
• Inappropriate sexual behavior
• France