Harvey Weinstein undergoes emergency surgery in New York for heart problem

Former American producer and Hollywood king Harvey Weinstein, who is being held for sexual assault and rape in the United States, has been rushed to hospital for heart surgery in New York, ABC News reported on Monday, September 9.

“Mr. Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital last night due to numerous medical symptoms.”said in a statement obtained by the channel, its representatives who have “confirmed heart intervention and surgery” after chest pains felt over the weekend.

His counsel stressed that their client, aged 72, suffered from “plethora of significant health issues that require medical attention” – including diabetes, high blood pressure and spinal stenosis – while he is incarcerated in New York’s Rikers Island jail awaiting a retrial in November on rape and sexual assault charges.

Resounding overturning of a conviction

Harvey Weinstein was scheduled to attend a new procedural hearing in a city court on Thursday after the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office presented new evidence of sexual assaults in the 2000s to a grand jury – citizens who participate in the investigation phase with the prosecutor – in early September. Harvey Weinstein could thus be charged again at the end of the week.

A hearing in July in New York, during which he appeared physically diminished and pushed in a wheelchair, set a new trial for November 12.

The former producer, arrested in 2018, was hospitalized in July with Covid-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said. He was also admitted to a hospital in New York in late April, just after the resounding overturning of a first 2020 conviction for the 2013 rape of actress Jessica Mann and the 2006 sexual assault of production assistant Mimi Haleyi.

A turnaround experienced as an affront and a step backwards for the #metoo movement, launched with the Weinstein affair, against sexual and sexist violence against women.

Sentenced to sixteen years in prison

Despite the overturning of the New York verdict, Harvey Weinstein remains in custody pending a 2023 conviction in Los Angeles of 16 years in prison for other rape and sexual assault charges.

British prosecutors announced Thursday that they were dropping the sexual assault charges brought in the United Kingdom against the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement that after reviewing the evidence in the investigation, “There is no longer any realistic prospect of conviction”in this case which concerned alleged sexual assaults on a woman in August 1996.

The 2017 revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults sent shockwaves around the world and freed many victims to speak out. More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. For his part, the former producer has always maintained that the sexual relations were consensual.