(New York) Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was hospitalized on Saturday upon his return to New York after the city’s appeals court overturned his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault.
This court decision sparked outrage within the #metoo movement even though Harvey Weinstein remains incarcerated for a separate 16-year rape sentence handed down in California.
“The New York Department of Corrections determined that Mr. Weinstein required immediate medical attention,” his lawyer Arthur L Aidala told AFP in a statement.
“A myriad of tests are being performed on Harvey and he is being kept under observation,” he said.
Police told US media that Mr Weinstein was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York.
On Thursday, the city’s appeals court ruled that the trial judge had erred in admitting testimony relating to facts other than those committed against the complainants, and ordered a new trial.
Harvey Weinstein, 72, was convicted in a New York court in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013, and of sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
The #metoo movement was triggered in 2017 by revelations about the behavior of the fallen producer, whose influence on Hollywood had been immense in the past.
Since then, dozens of women, including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape. But the statute of limitations has passed in many of these cases.