Cops grill Luc Besson over rape allegations

Paris: French police interviewed movie mogul Luc Besson for nearly five hours on Thursday over allegations he raped a young actress, sources said.

The 59- year- old director, producer and screenwriter — most famous for directing international hits including The Fifth

Element and The Big Blue

— had requested to speak to police, his lawyer Thierry Marembert told AFP. “Luc Besson was interviewed as he had requested, he responded to all questions and all the aspects of the file were explored,” Marembert said. Prosecutors will now analyse the file, according to a judicial source, some four- and- a- half months after the investigation began. Police launched an investigation into Besson earlier this year after actress Sand Van Roy accused him of rape.

Another woman has since accused the director of sexual assault and two other women have accused him of sexual harassment, according to French website Mediapart.

Besson's office told the website in July that he “categorically denies any type of inappropriate or reprehensible behaviour".

Marembert has already dismissed the rape allegation against Besson as "fantasist accusations".

The director's lawyer Thierry Marembert stated that Besson “categorically denies these fantasist accusations” and that the accuser was "someone he knows, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately"

Sand Van Roy, actress the belgo- Dutch, had an intimate relationship with Luc Besson for about two years. Actress career, to say the least confidential, it is mainly appeared ( for minor roles) in Taxi 5 and Valeriana and the City of a thousand planets, two works performed or produced by Luc Besson.

The actress has filed a complaint last may explaining will be made to a business meeting with Luc Besson, who would have sided in sexual violence. She has admitted to having an ongoing relationship with the producer but feel “forced” by the facts of his professional relationships.

Besson is known for his distinctive filmmaking style in films like Subway

( 1985), The Big Blue ( 1988), and Nikita ( 1990).

Besson has been conferred with many honours. Among Besson's awards are the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Critics Prize, Fantasporto Audience Jury AwardSpecial Mention, Best Director, and Best Film, for Le Dernier Combat in the year 1983.