The judges of the Paris correctional court did not rule on whether or not the French-Polish filmmaker raped British actress Charlotte Lewis, but rather on whether he abused freedom of expression in an interview in 2019.
French justice on Tuesday acquitted veteran filmmaker Roman Polanski, accused of defaming the British actress Charlotte Lewiswho accused him of raping her in the 1980s. Franco-Polish directorwhom several women accused of sexual assault and rape, had crossed out Lewis’ accusation of “hateful lying.”
The court judges Paris correctional facility should not rule on whether or not the 90-year-old director raped Lewis, but rather on if you abused freedom of expression in an interview with the magazine Paris Match of 2019.
The interview in which Roman Polanski accused actress Charlotte Lewis of a “hateful lie”
In that interview, Polanski described the actress’s accusation as a “hateful lie”who in 2010 stated that this “sexually assaulted” during a casting at her home in Paris in 1983, when she was 16 years old.
Charlotte Lewis during the press conference in which she declared that she had been abused by Roman Polanski at the age of 16. She can now be sued for “slanderous denunciation.”
“As you see, the first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory. Charlotte Lewis is always mentioned on the list of my accusers without ever being singled out. [sus] contradictions”added the director in the interview.
The decision of the French justice coincides with the opening day of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, which opened its doors in the Côte d’Azur city this Tuesday with a new wave of mobilizations against sexual violence in French cinema. During the defamation trial in March, lewiswho acted in the film Pirates of Polanski in 1986, declared that He was the victim of a “smear campaign” that was “about to destroy” his life after his revelations.
Lawyers for Polanski, who did not attend the trial, cited an interview by Lewis published in 1999 by the defunct British tabloid News of the World. The newspaper attributed these statements to Lewis: “I wanted to be his lover (…) I probably wanted it more than him.” But the actress denounced that they were not “accurate.”
The Polanski’s lawyers estimate that their client was “abandoned to the mercy” of public opinion in “the suffocating context of #Metoo” and denounce an “absurd trial.”
Accusations of the film director for sexual assault and rape
Throughout his career, several women accused to the winner of three Oscars and a Palme d’Or at the Cannes festival for The pianist sexual assault and rape, some when they were minors. The director has always denied these accusations due to prescribed acts, which have not prevented him from working.
For more than 40 years, he has been considered a fugitive in the United States, where he was convicted of having illegal sexual relations with Samantha Geimera minor under 13 years old.
In 2025, the director must face a civil trial in the American city of Los Angeles, after a woman accused him of raping her in 1973 when she was a minor.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
