(24 Mar 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 24 March 2025
1. Wide exterior of courtroom with journalist, police and people attending trial
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Jeremie Assous, Gérard Depardieu’s lawyer
“We’re finally going to be able to benefit from an contradictory debate and show that these accusations are false and opportunistic, because it’s very easy to put together a case and then present it to the press as damning when you systematically omit all the elements susceptible to question the accusations."
3. Wide of crowds outside courtroom
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Jeremie Assous, Gérard Depardieu’s lawyer:
“This trial will make it possible to confront all the accusations with reality, with the witnesses and with the configuration of the location. In this way, we will be able to show in an impartial, objective, and incontestable manner that all of the accusations are lies."
5. Various of courtroom exteriors
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Jeremie Assous, Gérard Depardieu’s lawyer:
“The public prosecutor’s office and the civil parties’ lawyers did everything in their power to ensure that his actions and investigations never took place. They refused to carry them out. We’ve done them, and we gave them to the tribunal. From that moment on, the truth will be obvious, and the truth is on our side.”
7. Medium of Jeremie Assous walking away from journalists screaming (French) "What is the truth?" and entering courtroom
STORYLINE:
French actor Gérard Depardieu strode calmly into a Paris courthouse on Monday to stand trial over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women during the filming of a movie in 2021.
The case is seen as a potential watershed for the #MeToo movement in France. Depardieu, 76, is facing charges that he groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director during production of the film “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”). The actor denies any wrongdoing.
“We will be able to show in an impartial, objective and incontestable manner that all of the accusations are lies,” his attorney, Jérémie Assous, told journalists massed outside the courtroom. “The truth will be obvious and the truth is on our side,” he said.
Prosecutors allege the assaults included obscene remarks and inappropriate touching, including an incident in which Depardieu allegedly used his legs to trap one of the women before groping her in front of other crew members.
The Associated Press doesn’t name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified. Neither has in this case.
The two-day trial was initially scheduled for October but was postponed because of Depardieu’s health. A verdict is expected at a later date.
Assous previously said the actor had undergone a quadruple heart bypass and has diabetes. A court-appointed medical expert determined that he’s fit to stand trial. He is expected to attend the hearing, reportedly with scheduled breaks.
This is the first time that Depardieu, one of France’s most prominent film actors, has been tried over sexual assault allegations. He has previously been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but no other case has proceeded to court. Some were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.
In a separate case, French actor Charlotte Arnould accused Depardieu of two rapes allegedly committed in August 2018. Depardieu was charged in 2020 with rape and sexual assault in that case, and in August prosecutors requested it go to trial. A magistrate has yet to make the decision.
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