A French magistrate investigating an allegation of rape made against French film director Luc Besson in the wake of the #MeToo movement has closed the case, legal sources told AFP on Thursday.
Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy had accused Besson — director of the Fifth Element and Leon — of raping her over a two-year on-off relationship and filed a complaint against him in May 2018.
Prosecutors dropped the case in February 2019 citing lack of evidence, but a new investigation was opened later that year after Van Roy brought fresh charges.
Van Roy, who had minor roles in Besson's Taxi 5 and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, is one of nine women who have said they were assaulted or harassed by Besson.
He has denied all of the accusations.
Besson has admitted to having a relationship with Van Roy but dismissed her as a "fantasist".
"This case is a lie from A to Z. I did not rape that woman, I have never raped a woman in my life," he told BFMTV in 2019.
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Published 09 December 2021, 16:23 IST