Harvey Weinstein rushed to hospital for emergency surgery

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been rushed from jail to hospital for emergency surgery, his lawyer has confirmed.

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been rushed to hospital for emergency heart surgery, his lawyer has confirmed.

Weinstein, 72, was taken from the Rikers Island jail to a hospital in New York City on Monday, local time, his lawyer Arthur Aidala told BBC News.

The convicted sex offender and former film producer had reportedly been experiencing multiple health conditions, including chest pains.

Disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein. Picture: Etienne Laurent/AFP

He is believed to be undergoing emergency heart surgery at New York’s Bellevue Hospital.

Weinstein was due in court this week ahead of a retrial following the overturning of his rape conviction in April.

Weinstein was convicted in New York in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of former actor Jessica Mann in 2013, and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006.

He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Jessica Mann, one of the key witnesses from Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial, leaves Manhattan criminal court May 1. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

But in April, New York’s highest court overturned Weinstein’s conviction on sex crime charges in a shock reversal in one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement.

The Court of Appeals found the trial judge erred in admitting the testimony of additional women who were allegedly abused by Weinstein but who were not named in the charges brought against him, and ordered a new trial.

He could face a retrial as early as November.

In July, prosecutors in New York also announced that authorities were investigating “additional violent sexual assaults” allegedly carried out by Weinstein that were not subject to a statute of limitations.

– With AFP