The court hearing the defamation action launched by “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor Johnny Depp against his ex-wife Amber Heard in the United States denied a defence plea to dismiss the case on Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the 36-year-old “Aquaman” actress urged Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate to dismiss the action after Depp’s attorneys rested their case after three weeks of hearing.

They claimed Depp had failed to establish he was defamed by an op-ed published in The Washington Post in December 2018 in which Heard identified herself as a “public figure symbolising domestic abuse.”

“The court should approve the request to strike because there is clear proof that he did, in fact, abuse Amber,” Heard’s lawyer Ben Rottenborn said.

Benjamin Chew, Depp’s lawyer, requested the judge to refuse the petition, stating Heard is the “abuser in this courtroom.”

A move to dismiss like this is common in judicial processes, although it is seldom granted.

The judge stated that enough evidence had been given thus far to enable the case to proceed, and she would leave the decision to the seven-person jury.

“If there is a speck of evidence that a reasonable jury might evaluate,” she stated, “the case survives a move to strike.”

Heard did not identify Depp, 58, in her Post op-ed, but he has sued her for insinuating he was a domestic abuser and is demanding $50 million in damages.

Heard, who was born in Texas, countersued, saying she was subjected to “rampant physical assault and abuse” at his hands.

Depp has denied ever being physically abusive to Heard and has claimed that she was the one who was regularly aggressive throughout the high-profile trial.

After Depp’s side rested their argument, Heard’s attorneys began calling their own witnesses.

Heard is slated to testify as a witness this week.

Depp launched the defamation suit in the United States after losing a separate libel action in London against The Sun in November 2020 for branding him a “wife-beater.”

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, and Heard met on the set of “The Rum Diary” in 2009 and married in February 2015. Two years later, their divorce was formalised.