BREAKING: Frenchwoman accuses Polanski of raping her as a teen

Issued on: 09/11/2019 - 02:48  GMT/ZULU

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Paris 

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24

A Frenchwoman on Friday accused Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, whose new film on the persecution of French Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus premieres next week, of raping her in a Swiss ski resort when she was a teenager.

It is the latest accusation against the Polish-born director who fled to France in 1978 from the US after admitting the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

The 86-year-old has been a fugitive ever since from the US justice system, despite repeated attempts to have him extradited.

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Valentine Monnier told Le Parisien newspaper that the alleged rape occurred in 1975 when she was 18 at Polanski's chalet in Gstaad.

"I had no links with him, neither personal nor professional, and hardly knew him," Monnier, a former model who worked in New York, said.

She said the alleged rape was "extremely violent", adding: "He pummelled me until I gave in and then raped me, making me do all sorts of things."

Monnier, who acted in a few films in the 1980s, said she had finally decided to speak out as Polanski's new film about an error of justice was due to come out.

Following the Harvey Weinstein scandal Monnier said she had written letters about the alleged rape to Los Angeles police and to French first lady Brigitte Macron.

Polanski's lawyer Herve Temime said the director "firmly denies all accusations of rape," adding that the allegations "which date back 45 years have never been reported to judicial authorities".

Polanski has also been accused of sexual assault by others. In 2010, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused him of "sexually abusing" her in 1983 when she was 16.

Another woman, identified only as Robin, accused him in August 2017 of sexual assault when she was 16 in 1973.

In September 2017, former actress Renate Langer filed a new complaint alleging she had been raped by Polanski in 1972 when she was 15.

Polanski's lawyer said all three allegations were baseless.

Polanski, who directed "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown", was accused of drugging a 13-year-old girl before raping her at film star Jack Nicholson's house in Los Angeles in 1977.

He admitted statutory rape after a number of more serious charges were dropped, and spent 48 days in custody to undergo psychiatric evaluation before being released.

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ANALYSIS: Julian Assange: from political asylum to prison

Date created : 13/05/2019 - 18:53  GMT/ZULU

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting extradition to the United States, while Swedish authorities are reopening an investigation into a rape allegation AFP/File

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Paris 

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting extradition to the United States to face charges over the 2010 publication of thousands of classified documents.

Swedish prosecutors decided Monday to reopen his investigation for alleged rape in 2010, which he denies and says is a pretext for his US transfer,

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Here is a timeline of events since Assange first hit the headlines in 2010 :

- 2010: arrest warrant -

- July to October: The WikiLeaks whistleblowing website releases 470,000 classified military documents concerning US diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

- November: A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims, saying the women consented.

- December: He turns himself in to police in London and is arrested pending a ruling on the Swedish request for his extradition. A week later he is released on bail and calls the allegations a smear campaign.

- 2011: extradition ruling -

- February: A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. He launches an appeal.

- 2012: refuge at embassy -

- June: He takes refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid extradition and applies for political asylum.

British police say he is subject to arrest for breaching the conditions of his 2010 bail, which included staying at his bail address overnight.

- August: Ecuador grants Assange asylum and he begins his almost seven-year stay and in the Ecuadorian embassy in London

- 2016: UN appeal -

- January: Ecuador rejects a request by Swedish prosecutors to question Assange over the sexual assault allegations.

- February: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Assange has been "arbitrarily detained".

- 2017: sex case closed -

- January: WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are guaranteed. This comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, is granted clemency.

- May: Swedish prosecutors drop the seven-year sex assault investigation, frustrated by the failure to have him extradited. The lawyer for one accuser calls the decision "a scandal".

- December: Ecuador grants Assange nationality but is blocked by Britain from according him diplomatic status.

- 2018: embassy tensions -

- January: Ecuador says it is seeking a mediator to resolve the "untenable" situation.

- February: Assange loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.

- March: Ecuador cuts off his communications -- including use of the internet or a mobile phone -- alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs. It warns further breaches will lead to "termination of asylum".

- October: Assange sues the Ecuador government for violating his "fundamental rights" but the case is thrown out. His communications are partially restored.

- November: US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.

- 2019: arrest -

- April 2: Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has "repeatedly violated" the conditions of his asylum.

- April 10: Ecuador cancels his citizenship.

- April 11: British police arrest Assange at the embassy, saying Ecuador had informed them that his asylum had been withdrawn. He is held for breaching his 2010 bail conditions and also on a US extradition request.

- May 1: Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching bail.

- May 2: The legal process for his extradition to the US starts in a London court, Assange vowing to resist.

- May 13: Swedish prosecutors say they are reopening the 2010 rape investigation.

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Analysis: Who is Rachel Mitchell-- the Arizona prosecutor chosen to question Kavanaugh and his accuser?

September 27, 2018  02H:32  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Rachel Rubin and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters News Analysts, Washington

WASHINGTON - Hoping to salvage the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and cement a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation, Republicans have chosen a woman who prosecuted sex crimes in Arizona to question President Donald Trump’s nominee about sexual assault allegations.

Rachel Mitchell is seen in this Maricopa County Attorney's Office photo from Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., released on September 26, 2018. Courtesy Maricopa County Attorney's Office/Handout via REUTERS

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Rachel Mitchell, and not the Republican committee members, all of whom are male, will question Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her in high school.

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Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said they chose Mitchell for her experience and objectivity. She is on leave as chief of the special victims division in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona.

As the special victims division head, she supervises prosecutors handling cases of sexual assault, child molestation, child prostitution and computer-related sexual offenses. She had served as a prosecutor since 1993.

Her office said she was not available for interviews on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh will testify is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Mitchell was drawn to prosecuting sex crimes after assisting a senior lawyer in a case against a youth choir director, she told a magazine affiliated with a Christian organization in 2012. “It struck me how innocent and vulnerable the victims of these cases really were,” she said.

One of Mitchell’s notable victories came in 2005 when she secured a guilty verdict against Catholic priest Paul LeBrun for sexually abusing boys in Arizona in the 1980s and 1990s. He was sentenced to 111 years in prison.

In 2011, Mitchell was criticized over what the Phoenix New Times newspaper called a “slap-on-the-wrist” plea deal for an elder in the Jehovah’s Witness church who had abused a Phoenix teenager.

A statement from Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, her boss, said Mitchell has a “caring heart” for victims and has lectured around the country on sexual assault investigations and prosecutions.

“The American people can be confident that Rachel Mitchell’s experience as a conscientious prosecutor, trained to seek justice, protect victims, and pursue truth will assist the Senate Judiciary Committee in performing its important task,” he said.

Blasey Ford’s attorneys have objected to the use of an outside counsel at Thursday’s hearing, saying Ford has repeatedly requested that senators handle the questioning.

“This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate,” Ford lawyer Michael Bromwich said in a letter sent to Grassley on Monday and seen by Reuters.

Ford, a university professor in California, has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982 when both were students at a private high school in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington. Her allegations, along with those of another woman, have put Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court in jeopardy. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.

Another woman came forward on Wednesday with yet more claims of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, further inflaming an already contentious confirmation process.