Filmmaker Polanski goes on trial in France on defamation charges

Veteran Franco-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski goes on trial in France on Tuesday over allegations he defamed a British actress who accused him of sexual abuse in the 1980s.

The 90-year-old is wanted in the United States over the rape of a 13-year-old in 1977 and faces several other accusations of alleged sexual assault dating back decades and past the statute of limitations — all claims he has rejected.

The director — whose lengthy career includes his Oscar-winning films "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" — fled to Europe in 1978.

Polanski is not due to appear in court, his lawyers have said.

His accuser, Charlotte Lewis, 56, is expected to be present.

Lewis in 2010 accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her "in the worst possible way" as a 16-year-old in 1983 in Paris after she travelled there for a casting. She appeared in his 1986 film "Pirates".

The France-born filmmaker retorted that it was a "heinous lie" in a 2019 conversation with the Paris Match magazine.

According to Paris Match, he pulled out a copy of a 1999 article in British tabloid newspaper News of the World, and quoted Lewis as saying in it: "I was fascinated by him, and I wanted to be his lover."

Lewis has said the quotes attributed to her in that interview were not accurate.

Polanski's lawyer Delphine Meillet said there had been no defamation in the Paris Match article.

(AFP)