NEW YORK: Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers asked a judge on Wednesday to allow the ailing ex-studio boss to spend his nights at a New York City hospital instead of jail for the duration of his #MeToo rape retrial.
Weinstein’s lawyers made the request as jury selection resumed for a second day. The 73-year-old disgraced movie mogul arrived in court in a wheelchair, as he has at all of his recent court appearances.
In court papers, his lawyers argued that Weinstein’s stay at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex is exacerbating his health issues and that he’d be better off in the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital.
He been back and forth to Bellevue several times in recent months for treatment of various maladies.
Weinstein has numerous health conditions, including chronic myeloid leukemia, heart issues, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, sciatica and severe limitations on his ability to walk. A recent tongue infection was misdiagnosed at Rikers, requiring hospitalization, and he has gained nearly 20 pounds (9 kilograms) in the past month, his lawyer Imran Ansari said.
In a statement, Ansari said Weinstein is also subjected to freezing temperatures at Rikers and isn’t provided with clean clothing.
“Because of this mistreatment, he has been worn down considerably health wise, and now faces the stress of trial in this condition, which may very well lead to serious health complications, even death,” Ansari said.
Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim against New York City last November, alleging he was receiving substandard medical treatment in unhygienic conditions at Rikers. The claim, which seeks $5 million in damages, argues that Weinstein has been returned to Rikers each time before fully recovering at the hospital.
The troubled jail complex has faced growing scrutiny for its mistreatment of detainees and dangerous conditions. Last year, a federal judge cleared the way for a possible federal takeover, finding the city had placed inmates in “unconstitutional danger.”
Judge Curtis Farber has yet to rule on the transfer request, and the issue wasn’t discussed in court before jury selection resumed on Wednesday morning.
The first day ended on Tuesday with no one chosen for the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates. Wednesday kicked off with two dozen prospective jurors being brought to the courtroom for more questioning after making it through an initial round a day earlier.
Weinstein is being tried again after New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, last year overturned his 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial, finding that improper rulings and prejudicial testimony tainted the original one.
Weinstein is being retried on two charges from his original trial. He’s accused of raping an aspiring actor in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and a criminal sex act on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006.
He is also charged with one count of criminal sex act based on an allegation from a woman who was not a part of the original trial. That woman, who has asked not to be named publicly, alleges that Weinstein forced himself on her at a Manhattan hotel.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.
Weinstein’s lawyers want him hospitalized instead of in jail during #MeToo retrial
https://arab.news/wmmsa
Weinstein’s lawyers want him hospitalized instead of in jail during #MeToo retrial
- Weinstein’s lawyers made the request as jury selection resumed for a second day
- The 73-year-old disgraced movie mogul arrived in court in a wheelchair
How decades of deforestation led to catastrophic Sumatra floods
- At least 1.4m hectares of forest in flood-affected provinces were lost to deforestation since 2016
- Indonesian officials vow to review permits, investigate companies suspected of worsening the disasters
JAKARTA: About a week after floods and landslides devastated three provinces in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, Rubama witnessed firsthand how the deluge left not only debris and rubble but also log after log of timber.
They were the first thing that she saw when she arrived in the Beutong Ateuh Banggalang district of Aceh, where at least two villages were wiped out by floodwaters.
“We saw these neatly cut logs moving down the river. Some were uprooted from the ground, but there are logs cut into specific sizes. This shows that the disaster in Aceh, in Sumatra, it’s all linked to illegal forestry practices,” Rubama, empowerment manager at Aceh-based environmental organization HAKA, told Arab News.
Monsoon rains exacerbated by a rare tropical storm caused flash floods and triggered landslides across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late November, killing 969 people and injuring more than 5,000 as of Wednesday, as search efforts continue for 252 others who remain missing.
In the worst-hit areas, residents were cut off from power and communication for days, as floodwater destroyed bridges and torrents of mud from landslides blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts and aid delivery to isolated villages.
When access to the affected regions gradually improved and the scale of the disaster became clearer, clips of washed-up trunks and piles of timber crashing into residential areas circulated widely online, showing how the catastrophic nature of the storm was compounded by deforestation.
“This is real, we’re seeing the evidence today of what happens when a disaster strikes, how deforestation plays a major role in the aftermath,” Rubama said.
For decades, vast sections of Sumatra’s natural forest have been razed and converted for mining, palm oil plantations and pulpwood farms.
Around 1.4 million hectares of forest in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra were lost to deforestation between 2016 and 2025 alone, according to Indonesian environmental group WALHI, citing operations by 631 permit-holding companies.
Deforestation in Sumatra stripped away natural defenses that once absorbed rainfall and stabilized soil, making the island more vulnerable to extreme weather, said Riandra Purba, executive director of WALHI’s chapter in North Sumatra.
Purba said the Sumatra floods should serve as a “serious warning” for the government to issue permits more carefully.
“Balancing natural resource management requires a sustainable approach. We must not sacrifice natural benefits for the financial benefit of a select few,” he told Arab News.
“(The government) must evaluate all the environmental policies in the region … (and) implement strict monitoring, including law enforcement that will create a deterrent effect to those who violate existing laws.”
In Batang Toru, one of the worst-hit areas in North Sumatra where seven companies operate, hundreds of hectares had been cleared for gold mining and energy projects, leaving slopes exposed and riverbeds choked with sediment.
When torrential rains hit last month, rivers in the area were swollen with runoff and timber, while villages were buried or swept away.
As public outrage grew in the wake of the Sumatra floods, Indonesian officials, including Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, have moved to review existing permits and investigate companies suspected of worsening the disaster.
“Our focus is to ensure whether company activities are influencing land stability and (increasing) risks of landslides or floods,” Nurofiq told Indonesian magazine Tempo on Saturday.
Sumatra’s natural forest cover stood at about 11.6 million hectares as of 2023, or about 24 percent of the island’s total area, falling short of the 30 to 33 percent forest coverage needed to maintain ecological balance.
The deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra also highlighted the urgency of disaster mitigation in Indonesia, especially amid the global climate crisis, said Kiki Taufik, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia.
Over two weeks since floods and landslides inundated communities in Sumatra, a few villages remain isolated and over 800,000 people are still displaced.
“This tropical cyclone, Senyar, in theory, experts said that it has a very low probability of forming near the equator, but what we have seen is that it happened, and this is caused by rapid global warming … which is triggering hydrometeorological disasters,” Taufik told Arab News.
“The government needs to give more attention, and even more budget allocation, to mitigate disaster risks … Prevention is much more important than (disaster) management, so this must be a priority for the government.”
