Rape case dropped against film-maker Luc Besson

A French magistrate investigating an allegation of rape made against French film director Luc Besson in the wake of the #MeToo movement has closed the case, legal sources told AFP on Thursday.

Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy had accused Besson -- director of the "Fifth Element" and "Leon" -- of raping her over a two-year on-off relationship and filed a complaint against him in May 2018.

Prosecutors dropped the case in February 2019 citing lack of evidence, but a new investigation was opened later that year after Van Roy brought fresh charges.

Van Roy, who had minor roles in Besson´s "Taxi 5" and "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", is one of nine women who have said they were assaulted or harassed by Besson.

He has denied all of the accusations.

Besson has admitted to having a relationship with Van Roy but dismissed her as a "fantasist".

"This case is a lie from A to Z. I did not rape that woman, I have never raped a woman in my life," he told BFMTV in 2019...AFP