A French judge on Tuesday ordered actor Gerard Depardieu to stand trial on charges of rape and sexually assault, the plaintiff and her lawyer said.

Depardieu is accused of raping and sexually assaulting actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018, her lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, was cited by the AFP news agency as saying.

What else do we know about the Depardieu trial?

Arnould said in a post on Instagram that she was "relieved" by the court's decision to hold a trial.

"I think I'm having trouble realizing how huge this is. I'm relieved," the 29-year-old actor said, adding she had gone through "seven years of horror and hell."

The case against Depardieu was initially dropped but was reopened in 2020, and he was put under formal investigation in 2022.

Arnould alleges that the assaults, involving rape by digital penetration, occurred at Depardieu's home on two occasions when she was in her early 20s.

Depardieu has denied the allegations. "There was never any coercion, violence, or protest between us," he said in a letter to the French daily Le Figaro.

Other accusations against Depardieu

The 76-year-old has acted in over 200 films and televisions series, having risen to prominence with the 1974 movie "Going Places."

Some 20 women have accused Depardieu of inappropriate conduct. He is one of the most high-profile French figures to be accused in the #MeToo movement.

In May, Depardieu was handed an 18-month suspended sentence after he was convicted of sexual assault for groping two women on a film set in 2021.

Edited by: Sean Sinico and Jenipher Camino Gonzalez