Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label sexual assaults. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual assaults. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Canadian actress sues Weinstein for two alleged sexual assaults


by Alyssa Mann and Biodun Iginla, France24, Ottawa


    © AFP/File | The actress, identified only as "Jane Doe" in court documents, says she was in her early 20s and working on her first movie in Toronto when Harvey Weinstein's assistant invited her to his hotel

    OTTAWA - 
    A Canadian actress sued disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein Wednesday for two alleged sexual assaults in Toronto in 2000, her lawyer said.
    The woman, identified only as "Jane Doe" in documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court and cited by the daily Toronto Star, is also suing Miramax, The Walt Disney Company and Barbara Schneeweiss, who worked for Weinstein and is accused of "facilitating" the assaults.
    The plaintiff is seeking a total of Can$14 million (US$11 million).
    In the court documents, Doe says she was in her early 20s and working on her first movie in Toronto when Weinstein approached her on set and said she looked like a famous movie star.
    Weinstein's assistant later called to invite her to his hotel "to discuss her career."
    Once alone with Doe, Weinstein allegedly asked if she liked massages, to which she replied yes but added that the subject was "not an appropriate one for a business meeting."
    There was an "uncomfortable silence" while Weinstein "stared intently at her for several seconds," she said in the court filings.
    She added he then "overpowered" her and pushed her onto the bed, "took his penis out of his pants," and "told Doe that he had made various famous actresses' careers and could make Doe's career as well."
    Afterward he pulled down her skirt and held her down by her wrists as he "forcibly performed oral sex on her without her consent," says the statement of claim, which adds Doe eventually freed herself and left.
    But in the hours that followed, Doe said Weinstein left several messages asking her to return to the hotel so that he could apologize to her in private.
    "Fearful that her movie career, which had barely begun, could be destroyed if she did not return to the hotel and give Weinstein a chance to apologize," she went back.
    But as soon as she entered, she said "he threw his weight onto her and tried to stick his tongue down her throat," before she pushed him off and left.
    More than 80 women including stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Mira Sorvino have accused 65-year-old Weinstein of sexual abuse and harassment, although he denies forcing himself on anyone.

    Saturday, January 9, 2016

    Cologne attacks: Merkel considers tougher migrant laws

    • 20 minutes ago



    Angela MerkelImage copyright EPA
    Image caption Ms Merkel's "open door" policy had already attracted criticism from within her party before the Cologne attacks

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will consider changes in the law to make it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes after sex attacks on women in Cologne.
    The attacks on New Year's Eve have shocked the country and sparked a debate about Germany's open-door policy on migrants.
    The police's handling of the events has also been sharply criticised.
    The head of the city police force has been suspended from his duties.
    Victims described chaos as dozens of sexual assaults and robberies were carried out with little apparent response from the authorities.
    Under current German laws, asylum seekers are only forcibly sent back if they have been sentenced to at least three years, and providing their lives are not at risk in their countries of origin.
    Officials from Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat party are expected to propose that migrants jailed for any length of time should face deportation.
    "I think there are indications that changes must happen," Ms Merkel said.
    "The interior minister and the justice minister are discussing just what we could improve," she added.
    Police officers stand in front of the cathedral in Cologne, 08 January 2016.Image copyright EPA
    Image caption Police have come under fire following the Cologne attacks
    A shop assistant sets up a row of pepper spray in a showcase of a gunsmith's shop in BerlinImage copyright Reuters
    Image caption Sales of pepper spray have reportedly risen
    The identification of the attackers in Cologne as North African or Arab in appearance has caused alarm in Germany because of the influx of more than a million migrants and refugees in the past year.
    Meanwhile German officials have warned that anti-immigrant groups have been trying to use the attacks to stir up hatred.
    Similar attacks to those seen in Cologne were also reported in Hamburg and in Stuttgart.
    The anti-immigration Pegida group has said it will hold a demonstration in Cologne on Saturday.
    Police are expecting around 1,000 people to gather in front of the city's main train station, German media reports say.
    Grey line

    Discomfort under the surface :German media reaction

    Debating rules on deporting criminals is a distraction, writes Heribert Prantl in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The law already provides for the deportation of criminal refugees, he says - the problem is the mistakes made by the police on the night and their inability to enforce the law.
    Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung, Christian Geyer largely agrees. Whether or not Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis with asylum seeker status were among the perpetrators changes nothing in the debate, he writes. The questions for the police and justice system remain the same.
    And while Chancellor Merkel's asylum policies are controversial, she doesn't need the help of favourable police reports, he adds.
    Chancellor Merkel's friendly face is gone, writes Philipp Wittrock in Der Spiegel. The chancellor recognised that the events in Cologne had the potential to sow mistrust, divide society, and damage her political standing.
    Discomfort in her own party at her welcoming asylum seekers continues to bubble under the surface, he writes.
    Grey line
    Women describe 'terrible' assaults
    Cologne mayor's 'code of conduct' attacked
    The search for answers
    Federal authorities say they have identified 18 asylum-seekers among 31 suspects linked to the crimes committed.
    The suspects include nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans and one each from Iraq, Serbia and the US.
    The state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jaeger said on Friday that he had suspended police chief Wolfgang Albers from his duties.
    He has been accused of holding back information about the attacks, in particular about the origin of the suspects.
    Media caption"Twenty or 30 men surrounded us and we couldn't even move anymore"
    Separately to the federal investigation focusing on what happened at the station itself, Cologne police are investigating 21 people in connection with the sexual assaults. It is not known how many of these are asylum seekers.
    The state police have recorded 170 complaints of crimes, 117 of which involve sexual assault. There were two allegations of rape.
    Two men, aged 16 and 23 and apparently of North African origin, arrested overnight on Thursday in connection with the sex attacks, have been released without charge, according to German media.

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