A judge in New York set a tentative retrial date for Harvey Weinstein for 12 November after the disgraced film mogul’s rape conviction was overturned in April.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Curtis Farber said during a hearing on Friday that he was open to potentially starting the trial earlier than November, as Weinstein’s lawyers have requested.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have said that they plan to file “additional violent sexual assault” charges after other women agreed to testify against Weinstein.
The newest accusers have yet to be publicly identified.
Weinstein, 72, attended the court hearing on Friday. He is being held in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail pending trial.
In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. But in April, a court of appeals ruled that he did not receive a fair trial because the judge overseeing his case allowed testimony from women who made allegations about Weinstein for which he was never charged.
He was also found guilty of rape at a separate trial in California and was sentenced to 16 years in that case.
Weinstein used a wheelchair to attend proceedings at the Manhattan court. He wore a dark suit, blue tie, and thick-framed eyeglasses and was seen carrying a brown folder.
The hearing was delayed for over an hour due to a global software outage affecting Microsoft computers.
Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct, assault and rape by over 100 women.
The decision by his accusers to come forward, and his subsequent conviction in New York, galvanised the #MeToo movement against sex abuse by powerful men.
Weinstein co-founded Miramax film studio, whose hits included Shakespeare in Love, which won best picture at the Academy Awards, and Pulp Fiction.
His films received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes.
By BBC News
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