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PARIS — French police are no longer holding actor Gérard Depardieu following a day of reported questioning on Monday over accusations by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets, his lawyer said.
French media had reported earlier on Monday that Depardieu was in police custody for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets.
Broadcaster BFMTV and the daily Le Parisien reported that the 75-year-old actor was summoned Monday morning by Paris police and placed in custody.
Speaking to reporters as he was leaving the police station in the 14th district of Paris the actor’s lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, said: “The police custody is over. He is no longer held in the police station.”
Earlier, the Paris police force said it wasn’t authorized to comment and directed questions to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which said it had no comment “at this stage.”
“We have no information to communicate or confirm before having assessed any eventual charges and directions,” the office said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.
A lawyer for one of the alleged victims did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Depardieu has denied wrongdoing. In an open letter last October, he said: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
BFMTV and Le Parisien reported that the police summons relates to accusations of sexual assault filed by two women who accuse him of groping during filming — one in 2014, the other in 2021.
The alleged 2014 assault was reported to police in January this year, Le Parisien reported.
The other alleged assault involved a 53-year-old movie decorator. She alleged that Depardieu grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts during filming for “Les Volets verts,” or “The Green Shutters,” according to the woman’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, when she filed the complaint to the Paris prosecutor’s office in February.
Depardieu has also been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. He was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020 following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould.
Depardieu was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador for French film and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.
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AP writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.