Harvey Weinstein prosecuted in the UK on suspicion of sexual assault in 1996

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 (June 8th). In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) specified having “authorized the Metropolitan Police to prosecute Harvey Weinstein on two counts relating to the sexual assault of a woman in August 1996”.

The prosecution was authorized “following a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in their investigation”, is 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.

Twenty-three years’ imprisonment

In March 2020, Mr. Weinstein was sentenced to twenty-three 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.

Aged 70, Mr. Weinstein is currently incarcerated in a prison in California where he awaits a new trial for alleged sexual assaults against five women.

Read also Article reserved for our subscribers Harvey Weinstein sentenced to twenty-three years in prison, a thunderclap sentence

In total, some 90 women – including celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek – have accused Mr Weinstein of harassment or sexual assault.

The revelations and the fall of the producer, from October 2017, had sparked the global #meToo movement to raise awareness and fight women against sexual assault and crimes.

Read also Article reserved for our subscribers The three successive “waves” that built modern feminism

The World with AFP

source site-29