ANALYSIS: Harvey Weinstein 'tests positive for coronavirus in prison'

Issued on: 23/03/2020 - 15:47  GMT/ZULU

Film producer Harvey Weinstein departs Criminal Court on the first day of a sexual assault trial in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 6, 2020. © REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

by Kathy DiNuzzo and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts, New York

Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who is serving a prison sentence for sexual assault and rape, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the head of the state corrections officers union.

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Weinstein, 68, has been placed in isolation at Wende Correctional Facility, said Michael Powers, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.

Powers said he learned that the test came back positive on Sunday morning and is concerned about the corrections officers, who he said lack proper protective equipment. Several staff have been quarantined, Powers said.

Weinstein arrived at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison east of Buffalo, New York, on Wednesday after being housed at New York City's Rikers Island jail.

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He was sentenced to 23 years in prison on March 11 for sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and raping Jessica Mann, a onetime aspiring actress.

Following the sentencing, Weinstein spent time at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for heart problems, according to his spokesman, Juda Engelmayer. He also has other medical issues, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

A lawyer for Weinstein said on Sunday night that his legal team had not been notified of the coronavirus diagnosis. "Given Mr. Weinstein's state of health, we are of course concerned, if this is the case, and we are vigilantly monitoring the situation," said lawyer Imran Ansari, who is based in New York.

The Niagara Gazette, a local newspaper in upstate New York, reported that Weinstein had tested positive for the highly contagious virus earlier Sunday, citing anonymous officials.

Two prisoners at the Wende Facility have confirmed cases of COVID-19, a state prison official told Reuters. The official said he could not comment on any individual prisoner's medical record.

The official told Reuters that, with each confirmed case, the Department of Corrections works with the Department of Health to identify potentially exposed people.

Mark David Chapman, who murdered Beatle John Lennon in 1980, served some of his time at Wende Correctional Facility, as did Robert Chambers, dubbed the "Preppie killer," who strangled 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in New York City’s Central Park in 1986.

Weinstein's conviction was hailed as a victory for the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct by powerful men.

More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct stretching back decades. He has denied the allegations, saying any sex was consensual.

Weinstein also faces separate sexual assault charges in Los Angeles.

Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing "Shakespeare in Love" and was responsible for other acclaimed films including "Pulp Fiction," "The English Patient" and "Gangs of New York."

• HARVEY WEINSTEIN
• CORONAVIRUS

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ANALYSIS: Julian Assange: Transparency icon or enemy of the state?

Date created : 11/04/2019 - 14:58  GMT/ZULU

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange likened his stay at the Ecuadoran embassy in London to living on a space station Wikileaks founder Julian Assange likened his stay at the Ecuadoran embassy in London to living on a space station AFP/File

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London 

by Selina O'Grady and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts

A heroic campaigner for openness, or an enemy of the US state trying to avoid justice: after a decade in the limelight, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains a polarising figure.

The 47-year-old Australian was on Thursday arrested by British police at Ecuador's embassy in London, his home since 2012, after it withdrew his asylum status.

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Assange lived in a small apartment in the embassy where he sought refuge while facing investigation for sexual assault and rape in Sweden, claims which were later dropped.

He denied the allegations, saying they were politically motivated and expressing fears of a plot to ultimately extradite him to the United States.

At the time, he was famous as the frontman of WikiLeaks as the whistleblowing website exposed government secrets worldwide.

He was applauded by transparency and anti-war campaigners for revealing the death of civilians, torture and clandestine military operations with the release of 500,000 US documents on the Iraq and Afghan wars.

But the United States and its allies accused him of risking lives by revealing information on sources, intelligence techniques and key infrastructure sites.

Human rights groups and newspapers that once worked with Assange to edit and publish the war logs were also horrified when WikiLeaks dumped the documents unredacted online, including the names of informants.

There have since been questions about his relationship with Russia, with WikiLeaks identified in independent prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into interference in the 2016 US election.

Mueller found that Russian government actors hacked White House hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign "and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks".

- Exposing 'truth' of war -

Born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1971, Assange has described a nomadic childhood and claims to have attended 37 schools before settling in Melbourne.

As a teenager he discovered a talent for computer hacking, and although he has pleaded guilty to 25 such offences, he has only ever walked away with fines.

He created WikiLeaks in 2006 with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts, to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information.

A confident speaker, he became its figurehead -- and a lightning rod for criticism.

The most damaging leaks emerged in 2010, beginning with a video showing a US military Apache helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and several Iraqi civilians on a Baghdad street in 2007.

It was followed by more than 90,000 classified US military files from the Afghan war, 400,000 from Iraq, and in November that year, around 250,000 US diplomatic cables covering almost every country in the world.

- Facing justice -

He was arrested in Britain in December 2010 and a judge ordered his extradition to Sweden. Although the claims were dropped, he still faced arrest by British police for having jumped bail.

Ecuador's then president, Rafael Correa, said Assange's human rights could be at risk and offered him refuge, but his successor, Lenin Moreno who took office in 2017, has had less patience.

He has accused Assange of interfering in foreign affairs. Ecuador temporarily cut his internet connection last year, and last week said the Australian had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his stay.

In the past, Assange said his time at the embassy was like living in a space station -- he exercised on a treadmill and used a sun lamp to make up for the lack of natural light.

This week, his supporters said it had become a "Truman-show type situation", accusing the Ecuador authorities of gathering thousands of photographs and videos from inside the apartment.

In 2016 a UN panel declared that Assange had been detained arbitrarily, but critics have said his concerns of extradition to the US are unfounded and accused him of seeking to avoid justice.

"WikiLeaks was founded on exposing those who ignored the rule of law. Surely its editor-in-chief should recognise his duty to see it upheld," The Guardian newspaper, which once worked with him to publish the leaks, wrote in 2016.

Assange has, however, found growing growing backing among supporters of Donald Trump, after the US institutions he had exposed began also to investigate the president.

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