PARIS (AFP) – A French appeals court is to decide 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”.
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.
