director escapes damages for defamation against Charlotte Lewis

JUSTICE – Roman Polanski is definitely out of the woods. Summoned before the Paris Court of Appeal this Wednesday, December 4, the 91-year-old Franco-Polish director was to find out if he was found guilty of “ civil fault » after having been definitively acquitted on criminal charges in the defamation case brought by British actress Charlotte Lewis.

The actress having appealed this decision, but not the prosecution, Roman Polanski could still be ordered to pay civil damages. Which will ultimately not be the case, as the Court of Appeal decided this Wednesday, causing Charlotte Lewis to definitively lose in the lawsuit she had filed against the famous filmmaker, also accused of sexual assault and rape by several women.

The Paris Court of Appeal “confirmed the judgment undertaken” in first instance, who acquitted Roman Polanski last May. “It’s a decision that is very questionable because it offers Roman Polanski a form of media license to kill”reacted a lawyer for the actress to AFP. His other counsel, Me Benjamin Chouai, estimated that this court decision gives Roman Polanski “ the right to defame, discredit, smear.”

“He will surely continue to do this to Charlotte Lewis but also surely to other women”he added, indicating that he would take stock with his client for a possible appeal to the Supreme Court.

Of the ” contradictions » contested by the actress

Charlotte Lewis had initially accused Roman Polanski of rape in 2010 during the Cannes Film Festival, for facts dating back to a casting organized at the filmmaker's house in 1983, when she was only 16 years old. In this case, justice was not to determine whether Roman Polanski had raped the actress or not, but only whether or not the filmmaker had made abusive use of his freedom of expression in an interview he had given to Paris Match in December 2019.

In this article, he responded to the rape accusations against him by saying that “The first quality of a good liar is an excellent memory. Charlotte Lewis is always mentioned in the list of my accusers without ever pointing out her contradictions”. Enough to push the 57-year-old actress to file a complaint for defamation. What the prosecution did not consider admissible, considering that there was no content in the remarks pursued “no fact likely to harm the honor and consideration of the civil party”.

To defend themselves, Roman Polanski and his lawyers relied on these famous « contradictions » of Charlotte Lewis, exhumed during the trial. These were statements made by the actress in 1999 for the magazine News of The Worldwhere she said she was fascinated by the Palme d'Or-winning director and even said she wanted “be his mistress”although she knew that he “had done something wrong to the United States”. Excerpts from this interview were reported by Liberation in 2010.

“I probably wanted him more than he wanted me.”would also have confided the actress to the British tabloid which ceased publication in 2011. Remarks attributed to her by the newspaper which the actress partly contests.

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