Formerly of the Comédie-Française, Nâzim Boudjenah obtains dismissal of charges in rape investigation

Former resident of the Comédie-Française Nâzim Boudjenah obtained a dismissal of charges following the investigation into accusations of rape brought by Marie Coquille-Chambel, AFP learned on Tuesday from a judicial source. This ex-girlfriend accused Nâzim Boudjenah, 54, of three rapes between February and May 2020.

At the time, the complainant was talking to this man, 27 years her senior, “a relationship that is clearly harmful for them, probably due to pre-existing weaknesses, each considering themselves a posteriori as destroyed by this relationship”underlined the judicial source.

A “professional death”

“If the suffering mentioned by the civil party cannot be called into question, and if it must be understood that in the context described, his memories can legitimately be fragmentary, an indictment requires that the investigations have made it possible to establish sufficient charges against the accused, and consequently that the course of the facts denounced is known, which is not the case at the end of this judicial investigation”continued this source.

“This decision, faithful to the prosecution’s requisitions, is welcomed with relief by Nâzim Boudjenah, who has never stopped proclaiming his innocence. However, the consequences of these accusations, widely reported in the media, had a devastating impact on his professional career which was brutally interrupted.reacted his lawyer Florence Bourg, to AFP.

“For six years, because of these unfounded accusations, he has been sidelined from the scene and has experienced a real professional death. Today, this judicial decision restores his honor. Nâzim Boudjenah will now try to rebuild itself”she added. The actor was fired from the Comédie-Française in February 2025.

Figure de #MeToothéâtre

The “the investigating judge considered that there was not sufficient evidence to refer the accused to the Paris departmental criminal court, which is not surprising given the statistics on the judicial treatment of sexual violence”reacted for her part Marie Coquille-Chambel’s lawyer, Anne Lassalle, indicating that she was not going to appeal, “for this same reason”.

Nâzim Boudjenah was convicted in June 2021 by the Paris court for death threats against Coquille-Chambel, who had become one of the figures of the #Metoothéâtre movement calling for free speech on violence in this environment. Nâzim Boudjenah was acquitted for the acts of violence of which she had accused him, on the same dates as the rapes of which she complained. She did not appeal.

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The former resident of the Comédie-Française was also sentenced in June 2025 to nine months in prison with a two-year probationary suspension for death threats against elected environmentalists Sandrine Rousseau and Alice Coffin, engaged in the fight against violence against women.