Luc Besson will not be charged with renewed rape allegations

A judge in Paris has ruled against further rape charges to French filmmaker Luc Besson in relation to a case made by actress Sand Van Roy.

The decision was made during a closed hearing in the French capital on Monday.

Examining magistrate Marie-Claire Noiriel ruled in favour of Besson and his lawyer, Thierry Marembert, declaring the moviemaker an "assisted witness", meaning an individual who is not under formal investigation but is alleged to have committed a crime and could still be implicated if evidence of their guilt is brought forward.

"This hearing in Paris is part of ongoing judicial proceedings that began with an investigation by the police and public prosecutor, which exonerated Luc Besson and found that no criminal acts had been committed," a spokesman for the director's EuropaCorp company tells Deadline. "Mr. Besson continues to fully co-operate with the authorities and to deny all accusations made against him, and he looks forward to clearing his name."

French prosecutors dropped their initial probe of Van Roy's 2018 sexual assault claims against Besson in 2019 due to insufficient evidence. In October of that year a judge ordered a second investigation in the Van Roy case. The actress starred in Besson's Taxi 5 in 2018 and 2017's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Besson called her claims "fantasist accusations".

Eight other women came forward with sexual abuse accusations against the filmmaker after Van Roy went public with her claims.