French appeals court to rule in Polanski defamation case

A French appeals court is to decide Wednesday whether French-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski owes a British actor damages after he was acquitted of allegedly defaming her when she accused him of rape.

A Paris criminal court in May found Polanski, 91, not guilty of defaming Charlotte Lewis, 57, after he said her rape accusation was a "heinous lie".

Lewis appealed the decision, but the prosecution did not follow suit.

This means his acquittal is final, but the Paris appeals court could still decide that Polanski committed a breach of civil duty and owes Lewis damages.

It is the latest in a series of legal battles for the Oscar-winning director, who has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault.

Lewis told the court in March she became the victim of a "smear campaign" that "nearly destroyed" her life after she spoke up about the alleged assault from 1983, when she was a teenager.

"He raped me," she said, explaining that it had taken her time to put a name on the incident that occurred in Paris when she was 16.

The May verdict related strictly to the charge of defamation and not the actor's rape accusation against Polanski.

The filmmaker, whose titles include the Academy Award-winning "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "The Pianist", did not attend any hearings.

But his lawyer said it showed it was "possible to cast doubt on the word of a female accuser".

Lewis, in tears, said it was a "sad day for women accusing their assaulters".

- International legal battles -

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

He fled to Europe in 1978.

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

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

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

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

She filed a complaint for defamation, and the film director was automatically charged under French law.

AFP British actor Charlotte Lewis accuses Polanski of defaming her after she accused him of sexual abuse in the 1980s

Switzerland, France and Poland have refused to extradite Polanski to the United States.

Between 2017 and 2019, four other women came forward with claims that Polanski also abused them in the 1970s, three of them as minors. He has denied all the allegations.

© Agence France-Presse