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) said it had “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.
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.