Jacques Doillon at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.
AFP
Filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, accused by actresses including Judith Godrèche of sexual violence, were taken into custody on Monday at the Brigade for the Protection of Minors, AFP learned from sources close to the case.
The two men, who deny these accusations, arrived at around 9:30 a.m. at the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ) in Paris accompanied by their lawyers, an AFP journalist noted.
Benoît Jacquot “will finally be able to express himself before the courts”, reacted his counsel Ms. Julia Minkowski, who denounced a “questionable” police custody. “A free hearing should have been decided,” she added.
For Me Marie Dosé, lawyer for Jacques Doillon, “none of the legal criteria can justify this measure” of police custody “36 years” after the facts denounced by Judith Godrèche.
“Attacks on the presumption of innocence”
Her client “should have been heard in a free hearing given the age of the facts, their statute of limitations acquired for more than two decades, and the inevitable dismissal without further action which will close this investigation,” she added in a press release.
The two lawyers denounced the “attacks on the presumption of innocence” of their clients and the media coverage of these measures.
According to sources close to the case, these police custody periods could lead to confrontations between the directors and some of their accusers, including Ms Godrèche.
In early February, the 52-year-old actress sparked a new storm in the French #MeToo movement by successively accusing Benoît Jacquot of rape and then Jacques Doillon of sexual assault, and filing a complaint.
Rape and sexual assault of a minor
The investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office concerns the offences of rape of a minor under 15 by a person in authority, rape, violence by a cohabitant, and sexual assault of a minor over 15 by a person in authority.
Mr. Jacquot and Ms. Godrèche, born in March 1972, began their relationship in the spring of 1986. They lived openly together, even buying an apartment in Paris, until their separation in 1992.
Ms. Godrèche spoke of a relationship of “control” and “perversion”.
Two other actresses filed complaints against Mr. Jacquot: Julia Roy for sexual assault; Isild le Besco, at the end of May, for rape of a minor over 15 years old and rapes allegedly committed between 1998 and 2007.
(afp)
