Two Parisian investigating judges closed the rape investigation against actor Ary Abittan on Thursday, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter. The 49-year-old actor, known in particular for having played in the comedy What did we do to the good god?, had been indicted for rape in November 2021 by an examining magistrate.
He is accused by a young woman, then 23 years old, whom he had been dating for two months at the time of the facts, of having imposed sodomy on him during a sexual encounter at his home in October 2021.
But a reversal in the procedure: on Wednesday, two magistrates granted him the more favorable status of assisted witness, in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution. These examining magistrates considered that new elements, collected after the indictment of the actor, were “likely to weaken the probative value of the indices initially retained”, according to elements of the order of which AFP was aware.
If the magistrates recognized the “indisputable” post-traumatic stress of the young woman after the facts, they do not consider it “possible to conclude that the traumatic lesions and bleeding” of the complainant “result from an act of non-consensual sexual penetration” because the two recounted having had a first consented report, and that the bleeding “predated, at least in part, the second disputed report”.
They also cited testimonies from former girlfriends of Ary Abittan who describe him as “a respectful sexual partner”, as well as psychiatric and psychological expertise which did not “reveal personality elements in favor of deviant sexuality or aggressive sexual impulses”.
During the investigation, the woman had described the actor as “obsessed” with the practice of sodomy but specified that he had, until then, always accepted her refusal. That night, she claims to have first said “no not tonight”, then “screamed in pain” during the act.
Contacted on Wednesday, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, did not wish to speak “to preserve the secrecy of the investigation”. Thursday, after in particular several press articles echoing the change in status of the actor, he filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office for violation of the secrecy of the instruction and the investigation.
