Film director Nicolás López has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexual abuse. López left his production company due to the case, but continues to claim he’s innocent. A lawyer also asked Netflix to remove Lopez’s films from the platform.
Sexual abuse allegations against Chilean film director Nicolás López formed the basis for the first such high-profile case in Latin America in the wake of the #MeToo movement. He was sentenced to five years in prison sexual abuse that took place between 2004 and 2016.
López worked on box office hits like Sin Filtro,No Estoy Loca, and the Qué Pena trilogy.
Allegations first emerged in 2018 in a media report, in which several actresses spoke up. López was found guilty in two cases of sexual abuse, but the court dismissed three rape charges on lack of evidence.
Shortly after his conviction, López and his lawyers requested a sentence reduction. They are expected to appeal later this month.
Prosecutors said López attacked several actresses during work meetings. During the investigation, López refused to swiftly hand cell phone records to investigators. He deleted nearly 2,700 messages, which were later recovered and referred to the accusations.
Yet, López has maintained his innocence. He also left his production company, Sobras.
The lawyer of some of the victims, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, asked Netflix to remove López’s films from the platform. “This is a case that will reverberate because we have a director who works in the US and who produces for the North American market, so we are not only going to apply Chilean legal standards, but also North America’s,” Hermosilla said.
“That’s why Netflix and any other company that has a presence in the US is in a complicated position: they cannot sponsor nor support behavior of abuse or mistreatment of artists.”
Ishaan Cheema is an undergraduate student at the University of Calgary, studying Kinesiology, with a focus on Exercise and Health Physiology. He always had a passion for globalism and political journalism, which he explored through Model UN conferences, debate teams, and several other extracurriculars.