Harvey Weinstein's trial, resumed in New York. The manufacturer's lawyer: “He will be based on facts and not #metoo”

Former film producer Harvey Weinstein, whose fall in disgrace in 2017 triggered the international movement #metoo, returned to the accused bench on Tuesday, in New York, in a new process for rape and sexual assault, after the resounding of its initial conviction last year, AFP reports.

Wearing a dark blue suit, the former 73-year-old Miramax chief of Miramax studios, weakened by health problems, entered the Manhattan courtroom in a rolling armchair. The process started with the selection of the jury, which could take several days before the witnesses were heard of prosecution and defense.

Harvey Weinstein is to be re -judged for the sexual aggression of the former Mimi Haleyi production assistant, in 2006, and for rape on the aspirant actress Jessica Mann, in 2013. He was found guilty following these charges, in 2020, and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

However, in April 2024, the New York Court of Appeal rejected the entire procedure, arguing that the court allowed other alleged victims to testify to facts for which the former producer was not charged. This cancellation was considered a blow to the movement of fighting sexual violence and a step back for the justice system in terms of taking into account the victims' voices.

Defense relies on new circumstances

The process will also focus on a new accusation of sexual assault that would have been committed in 2006 in a hotel in Manhattan. The identity of the alleged victim has not been revealed.

These women “will do so that Weinstein will be held accountable for the hateful offenses he has committed,” said the victim's lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, before the criminal court in Manhattan. “The fact that they testify again is a proof of their courage,” she added.

Harvey Weinstein, the producer of countless independent successful films, such as “Pulp Fiction” or “Shakespeare in Love”, remains in arrest after being sentenced to California to 16 years in prison, in 2023, in a separate file and sexual aggression.

He hopes that this case will be “viewed with other eyes”, more than seven years after the New York Times and New Yorker investigations that have led to a fall in disgrace and a global shock wave that caused numerous victims to speak and forced societies to re -examine women's place.

“It will be very different,” said his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, promising a process “based on facts and not #metoo.” “Five years ago (during his first trial of 2020, no), there were demonstrations, people chanting 'is a rapist' (…), people were so started against him,” added the defender. “I think everything has been quiet,” he said.

Described by the accuser as a predator who has used his Almighty status in the film industry to get sexual favors from actresses or nurses, most often in hotel rooms, Harvey Weinstein has never admitted that he had committed aggression and has always argued that relations were consensual.

Since the first disclosures of 2017, Harvey Weinstein has been accused of over 80 women of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including actresses Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. The #metoo explosion continued in many countries, including in France, where the entertainment world was shaken following the accusations of actress Judith Godreche against filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, notes AFP.