Overview

• An investigating judge directed the 76-year-old actor to face a criminal court over Charlotte Arnould’s allegations of two rapes at his Paris home in August 2018, including by digital penetration.
• Arnould, who was 22 at the time, said she feels relieved by the order, while Depardieu denies wrongdoing and says any encounter was consensual.
• Police initially closed the case for lack of evidence, but a civil-party filing led prosecutors to reopen a judicial investigation in 2020 that kept Depardieu under formal investigation.
• Earlier this year a Paris court convicted him of sexually assaulting two women on a 2021 film set, issuing an 18-month suspended sentence and placing his name on the national sex-offender registry; he has appealed.
• More than 20 women have publicly accused Depardieu in recent years, and in this case the court has not announced a schedule, with a rape conviction in France carrying a potential sentence of up to 15 years.