Depardieu to stand trial in Arnould assault and rape case

An investigating judge in Paris has ordered veteran actor Gérard Depardieu to stand trial on charges that he assaulted and sexually assaulted actress Charlotte Arnould in August 2018, court sources and Arnould said on Tuesday. Arnould, who filed a complaint in 2018, wrote on social media that she felt "relieved" and described the judge's decision as a restoration of judicial truth. Depardieu has denied the allegations.

Arnould, who was 22 at the time of the alleged incidents, accuses Depardieu of raping her on two occasions at his Paris apartment in August 2018. She later pressed criminal charges in 2020, and investigators in Paris formally pursued the case through subsequent judicial steps. Depardieu sought to have the matter dropped in 2022, calling the accusations baseless, but prosecutors said there was sufficient evidence to keep the charges. The investigating judge has now referred the matter to a criminal court, which handles serious crimes that can carry sentences of five years or more.

Arnould said in her Instagram post that the past seven years have been "seven years of horror and hell" and that she was struggling to realise "how huge this is." Her lawyer, Carine...