A French judge has ordered that French actor Gérard Depardieu stand trial in a criminal court on charges of rape related to accusations by actress Charlotte Arnould, French media reported on Tuesday.
The decision comes some seven years after Arnould officially brought rape charges against the actor in 2018.
The actress, whose father was an old friend of the actor, accuses Depardieu of raping and sexually assaulting her twice in his Paris mansion in the summer of 2018 after she went to him for acting advice.
The criminal court is France’s highest level of court reserved for crimes carrying sentences of more than five years, if the accused is found guilty.
News of the trial comes four months after a Paris court found the actor guilty of sexual assault and gave him a 18-month suspended sentence related to his behavior towards two women on the set of the film The Green Shutters in 2021.
That trial marked Depardieu’s first time in court against a backdrop of at least 20 public allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior against him, dating back decades, although many allegations have only come to light in recent years.
Depardieu continues to deny all the allegations made against him.
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