French actor Depardieu expected in court for sexual assault trial

Paris: Actor Gerard Depardieu was expected in court on Monday as his trial over alleged sexual assaults on a film set begins, a case placing one of France's best known movie stars at the heart of the country's broader reckoning over sexual violence.

A towering figure of French cinema, Depardieu has faced a growing number of sexual assault allegations in recent years. Depardieu, 76, has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and this is the first case for which he would be standing trial.

"He has obviously denied it from the beginning," Depardieu's lawyer, Jeremie Assous, told French radio RMC on Monday morning.

The trial in Paris was scheduled to start at 13:30 (1230 GMT).

Assous said the actor would be present at the trial, expected to last up to three days, after the postponement of an initial hearing last October due to Depardieu's ill health.

"Like any person facing trial, he has the right to speak. He will finally speak," Assous said.

Prosecutors allege the assaults against two women - whose full identities have not been revealed - took place during the filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).

They accuse Depardieu of groping one of the women on the film set, pulling her towards him and trapping her with his legs before touching her waist, hips and breasts while saying obscene words. Three people witnessed the scene, prosecutors say.

They say the second woman was groped by Depardieu on set and in the street.

A lawyer for one of the women told Reuters ahead of the trial that her client had been scared to come forward against Depardieu.

"There's a fear, because he's a cinema giant," said Carine Durrieu-Diebolt. "It's a struggle between David and Goliath and they are afraid of retaliation as they all work in cinema but at a much lower level than Depardieu."

The lawyer for the second plaintiff did not reply to Reuters requests for comment.

Changing attitudes

If found guilty, Depardieu could face a sentence of up to five years in jail and a 75,000 euro ($81,200) fine.

Depardieu's trial is the highest-profile #MeToo case to come before the courts in France, a country where the protest movement over sexual violence has struggled to gain the same traction as in the United States.

Recently, however, there have been signs this might change.

Gisele Pelicot became a global feminist icon last year after she waived her rights to anonymity during the trial of her former husband, who was convicted of drugging her and inviting dozens of men over to their home to sexually abuse her.

Then, last month, a French court found film director Christophe Ruggia guilty of sexually abusing actress Adele Haenel when she was underage.

Women's rights group activist Sophie Barre said the #MeToo movement had helped open up the path for the trial.

"There was a freeing of (victims') voices, and we can see that a large part of French society has become aware of the scale of sexual violence," she told Reuters. "We're in a post-#MeToo context in which it is possible for women to speak out and be believed by a lot of people."

But she said though that it remains difficult for victims to go through the judicial process against a "powerful man," especially in financial terms, with retaining lawyers for months or even years costly.