A prominent French film director has been handed preliminary charges of rape, sexual assault and violence by a French judge investigating a case involving actresses, the Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Benoît Jacquot, who has more than 50 director credits in film and television, has become one of the most prominent figures in a belated reckoning within the French movie industry and beyond over sexual violence and physical abuse.

French actress Judith Godrèche, who alleges that Jacquot raped and physical abused her in a six-year relationship that began when she was 14 years old, has taken a lead role in kickstarting the #MeToo wave. The movement struggled for traction before she spoke out publicly earlier this year and emboldened other actresses to do so.

HARVEY WEINSTEIN RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED: #METOO MOVEMENT WILL NEED TO 'ADJUST' STRATEGIES, EXPERT SAYS

The Paris prosecutor's office said the judge is investigating allegations against Jacquot made by actress Isild Le Besco and another actress. The judge handed him an array of preliminary charges on Wednesday after he was detained earlier this week for police questioning. In France, such charges are filed when a magistrate has determined there is serious and accumulated evidence to indicate that crimes may have been committed, allowing for more investigation before a decision on whether to prosecute.

The AP does not normally identify sexual assault victims. Le Besco, 41, has previously spoken publicly on French television and in other media and in a book about her relationship with the director that started when she was a teenager and who is 35 years older than her.

A prosecutor's office statement said Jacquot was charged for the alleged rape of Le Besco when she was a minor, over a two-year span from 1998. Jacquot was also named as an assisted witness, a special status under French law, for the alleged rape of Le Besco by a partner over a 10-month span in 2007.

The AP wasn't able to confirm that the other actress named by the Paris prosecutor's office as being another alleged rape victim of Jacquot's consents to being identified publicly. The lawyer of the actress, Margot Pugliese, didn't immediately respond to written and phoned requests for comment.

ACTRESS SLAMS 'FICKLE' #METOO MOVEMENT, CALLS OUT HOLLYWOOD FOR HAVING 'NO MORAL BACKBONE'

The prosecutor’s office said Jacquot was charged with raping the actress in a yearlong span in 2013 when they were in a relationship. He was also handed charges for the alleged sexual assault of the actress when they were still together in 2018 and of alleged violence against her in 2018 and 2019.

Jacquot was also named as an assisted witness for the alleged rape of that actress by a partner from 2014 to 2018, the prosecutor's office said.

Jacquot will remain free pending further investigation but was ordered to undergo psychological treatment, the prosecutor’s office said. He also is barred from contacting his alleged victims and witnesses. He also cannot work as a director or in any capacity with minors. He was also ordered to pay bail of 25,000 euros ($27,000).

The 77-year-old Jacquot has previously denied accusations against him. In a statement that didn’t directly address the filed charges, Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said the case has suffered from overexposure in the media and that the director wasn't given access to the evidence when he was questioned by police, even though French law allows that to happen "in cases of flagrant violations of the presumption of innocence."

"The investigation is at an embryonic stage and it was particularly premature to present it before an investigating judge," the attorney’s statement said.

She condemned the ban preventing Jacquot from working as a director, which also includes restrictions on his public appearances.

"More than a professional ban, this is a real measure of judicial cancellation, based on an embryonic investigation and before any judgment. We will obviously appeal," she said.

Another French director, 80-year-old Jacques Doillon, also was taken in for police questioning but was subsequently released for medical reasons, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Godrèche has accused Doillon of sexual abuse while he was directing a film when she was 15. Doillon has previously denied the allegation.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss peace in Ukraine, drawing warnings from fellow European Union leaders against appeasement and an insistence that he did not speak for the EU.

Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc on Monday. Five days in and Orban has visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and formed the "Patriots for Europe" alliance with other right-wing nationalists.

Now, he has chosen to go to Moscow on a "peace mission", days before a NATO summit that will address further military aid for Ukraine against what the Western defense alliance has called Russia's "unprovoked war of aggression".

HUNGARY LAUNCHES EU PRESIDENCY WITH TRUMP-LIKE CALL TO 'MAKE EUROPE GREAT AGAIN'

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that only unity and determination within the 27-nation EU would pave the way to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine".

"Appeasement will not stop Putin," she said on X.

Putin, who received Orban in the Kremlin, told him that he was ready to discuss the "nuances" of peace proposals to end the two-and-a-half-year-old war.

Putin said last month that Russia would end the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation, only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow - demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.

HUNGARY'S LEADER MAKES FIRST VISIT TO UKRAINE SINCE WAR BEGAN FOR PEACE TALKS WITH ZELENSKYY

An EU diplomat said that, in Orban's decision to meet Putin in Moscow, Hungary's presidency of the EU - which will run until Dec. 31 - had effectively ended before it had really begun.

"The skepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it's all about promoting Budapest's interests," the diplomat said, asking for anonymity due to political sensitivities.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda accused Orban of undermining the EU presidency. "If you truly seek peace, you don't shake hands with a bloody dictator, you put all your efforts to support Ukraine," he wrote on X.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban in Moscow was "not representing the EU in any form" and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the visit undermined EU interests.

Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Orban's visit was an abuse of a power vacuum in Brussels and a dangerous undermining of the common European position.

Orban, a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine who has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Putin, said he recognized he had no EU mandate for the trip, but that peace could not be made "from a comfortable armchair in Brussels".

"We cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end," he wrote on X.

The EU presidency's role is to chair meetings of member states, seek consensus and broker agreements on legislation with the European Parliament.

At a time of transition, with a new European Commission only set to take office in November, analysts said Budapest's actions at the forefront of EU policymaking were likely to be restricted.

Ministers said Hungary wanted to make an impact with its presidency, which it launched with a striking call to "Make Europe Great Again", echoing former U.S. president Donald Trump, an Orban ally.

"We intend to leave a mark," Orban's spokesman Zoltán Kovacs said on Thursday, before reports of the Moscow trip emerged. "The prime minister is going to use the presidency in a political way."