(LONDON) Disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein, whose crimes sparked the #metoo movement in 2017, will be charged in the UK with sexual assault, British prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
Posted at 10:07 a.m.
The British public prosecutor’s office “authorized the Metropolitan Police to prosecute Harvey Weinstein on two counts relating to the sexual assault of a woman in August 1996”, he said in a press release.
The prosecution was authorized “following a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation”, it added.
According to a press release from the London police, which must now formally charge Mr. Weinstein, the alleged victim is now in his fifties.
Mr. Weinstein was sentenced in 2020 to 23 years of criminal imprisonment for a sexual assault in 2006 and a rape in 2013. In early June, the American justice rejected an appeal by the producer and upheld his judgment.
The 70-year-old Mr. Weinstein is currently incarcerated in a prison in California where he awaits a new trial for alleged sexual assaults against five women.
The revelations and the fall of the producer, from October 2017, had triggered the global #metoo movement to raise awareness and fight women against sexual assault and crimes.
In total, some 90 women – including superstars Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek – have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment or sexual assault.