NEW YORK: Harvey Weinstein is due in court in New York as a judge decides on the future of his sexual assault case, which has been clouded by allegations that police acted improperly in the investigation that led to his arrest.
Judge James Burke is expected to rule Thursday after a flurry of court papers in which Weinstein’s lawyers say the case has devolved into chaos and prosecutors say there’s ample evidence to move forward to trial.
Weinstein, 66, is putting on his fiercest campaign yet to get the case thrown out, seizing on the alleged police misconduct and putting forth a witness who says his rape accuser pressured her to corroborate her story.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, says the case was “irreparably tainted” by police Det. Nicholas DiGaudio’s alleged interference with a witness and an accuser.
“The only reasonably prudent decision would be to stop this chaos now,” Brafman said in a court filing.
Assistant District Attorney Kevin Wilson fired back, saying “there is no possibility” that the allegations against DiGaudio “in any way impaired the integrity of the grand jury or prejudiced the defendant.”
Weinstein is charged with raping a woman he knew in a hotel room in March 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment. He denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
The case has been heavily scrutinized in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which exploded last year after numerous women made allegations against Weinstein.
Burke has a few options for his ruling.
He could side with Weinstein and dismiss some or all of the charges, or he could schedule a trial, which would be a win for prosecutors. He could also throw out the indictment, but give prosecutors time to seek a new one.
A dismissal of the charges would be a big setback to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who was criticized for declining to pursue criminal charges against Weinstein when he was accused of groping an Italian model in 2015.
Such a ruling wouldn’t rule out prosecutors bringing charges involving other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Weinstein in New York.
Burke could also keep the indictment in place, but grant the defense’s request for an evidentiary hearing. There, police investigators could be summoned to court to answer questions about alleged misconduct.
Weinstein’s case started to turn in October when Manhattan prosecutors dropped one of the charges after evidence surfaced that DiGaudio instructed a potential witness in the case to keep some of her doubts about the veracity of the allegations to herself.
DiGaudio allegedly told the witness last February that “less is more” but kept prosecutors in the dark. That witness never testified before the grand jury that indicted Weinstein.
Prosecutors also disclosed an allegation that DiGaudio urged the 2013 rape accuser to delete private material from her cellphones before handing them over to the DA’s office. Prosecutors said the material didn’t pertain to Weinstein and the woman wound up not deleting anything.
Late last month, Weinstein’s lawyers said they spoke to a woman who said the rape accuser asked her to corroborate her allegations, but the friend wouldn’t “make up a story.”
The friend told investigators that Weinstein and the accuser had been “hooking up” consensually for a while and that she never heard her say anything bad about him until last year, Weinstein’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, said in a court filing.
Judge to rule on fate of Harvey Weinstein’s criminal case
Judge to rule on fate of Harvey Weinstein’s criminal case
- Judge James Burke is expected to rule Thursday after a flurry of court papers in which Weinstein’s lawyers say the case has devolved into chaos
- The case has been heavily scrutinized in the wake of the #MeToo movement
S.African mother found guilty of selling young daughter
- The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return
- The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin
The two-month trial heard statements from various witnesses that Racquel “Kelly” Smith had revealed to them that she had sold her daughter Joshlin in February 2024, including claims she was paid 20,000 rand ($1,085).
Judge Nathan Erasmus said the evidence of 35 state witnesses led him to find that Smith, 35, and her two co-accused — a boyfriend and a mutual friend — were guilty on the charges of human trafficking and kidnapping.
“I have already found that on the evidence before me, Joshlin was exchanged,” he said.
“The evidence is from all scores there were payments, or at least the promise of payments,” he said, accusing Smith of regarding her daughter, who was aged six when she disappeared, as a “commodity.”
The trial was held in a community hall in the small fishing town of Saldanha Bay, about 135 kilometers (80 miles) north of Cape Town, where the case sparked outrage.
Crowds had gathered outside the hearings, chanting: “We want Joshlin back” and Friday’s verdict was met with a burst of applause.
Many locals had joined the police in days of searches for the girl around their impoverished area.
“You are guilty of... trafficking in persons in relation to Joshlin Smith. On count two, you are also convicted of kidnapping,” Erasmus told the three accused, none of whom took the stand.
He adjourned the court for sentencing, which may run up to life sentences.
Smith initially drew sympathy after her daughter was reported missing. Photographs showing Joshlin’s striking green eyes, broad smile and brown pigtails flooded the media.
The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return.
But it took a turn when prosecutors alleged that Smith sold her daughter to a traditional healer, who was interested in her eyes and fair complexion.
The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin.
Explosive details that played out in court included statements from the girl’s teacher and a pastor, who said the mother had told him of the planned sale of her child in 2023.
Palestinian girls arrive in UK for medical treatment
- The pair, aged 5 and 12, have serious health issues that cannot be treated in Gaza
- They are the first people from the enclave to be given temporary British visas since the start of the war
LONDON: Two young Palestinian girls have arrived in the UK for medical treatment of serious health conditions.
The girls, named by the BBC as Ghena, aged 5, and Rama, 12, are the first Gazans to be given temporary UK visas since Oct. 7, 2023.
They flew from Egypt, where they have been living with complex conditions after Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed during Israel’s invasion.
Rama, who has a serious bowel condition, previously lived in Khan Younis and told the BBC: “We were so scared. We were living in tents and shrapnel from airstrikes used to fall on us.
“Mum used to suffer so much going to hospitals while bombs were falling and would stand in long queues just to get me a strip of pills. Here I’ll get treatment and get better and be just like any other girl.”
Her mother told the BBC: “I’m very happy for Rama because she’ll get treatment here. As a mother, I felt so sorry in Gaza because I couldn’t do anything to help her.
“To see your daughter dying in front of your eyes, day by day, watching her weaken and get sicker — it pained me.”
Ghena has fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could cause blindness if left untreated.
Her mother Haneen told the BBC: “Before the war, Ghena was having medical treatment in Gaza, in a specialised hospital. She was getting tests done every six months there and treatment was available.”
Haneen said the hospital was destroyed in the first week of Israel’s invasion, leaving the family with little choice but to seek help elsewhere.
“She began complaining about the pain,” Haneen said. “She would wake up screaming in pain at night.”
Haneen added: “I hope she gets better here. In Gaza there are thousands of injured and sick children who need medical treatment. I hope they get a chance like Ghena.”
The girls were assisted by Project Pure Hope and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which worked with the World Health Organization to get them to the UK for treatment.
PCRF Chairwoman Vivian Khalaf told the BBC: “We came across these cases through an ongoing list that is getting longer and longer of children who need urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza.
“The current physicians and hospitals that continue to be operating to whatever extent have determined that the treatment isn’t available within Gaza.”
Khalaf said 200 children from Gaza have so far been taken abroad for medical treatment, including to the US, Jordan, Qatar and European countries.
The WHO has condemned the state of Gaza’s health system as “beyond description” after 18 months of conflict that has killed more than 50,980 Palestinians in the enclave, according to its Health Ministry.
Over 200 killed in at least 243 Myanmar military attacks since quake
- Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter”
- A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
GENEVA: The United Nations decried Friday continuing deadly attacks by Myanmar’s military despite a ceasefire declared following a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 3,800 people.
“The unremitting violence inflicted on civilians, despite a ceasefire nominally declared in the wake of the devastating earthquake on 28 March, underscores the need for the parties to commit to, and implement, a genuine and permanent nationwide halt to hostilities and return to civilian rule,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following the 7.7 magnitude quake, the junta joined opponents in calling a temporary halt to hostilities on April 2 for relief to be delivered.
But Turk said that since the quake and up to April 29, “the military has reportedly launched at least 243 attacks, including 171 air strikes, with over 200 civilians reportedly killed.”
“The vast majority of attacks,” he added, had happened after the ceasefire took effect.
While the military renewed once its “largely unobserved ceasefire,” the truce had been allowed to expire on April 30, Turk said.
“It is imperative that the military immediately stop all attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” he insisted.
The UN rights chief decried how “the relentless attacks affect a population already heavily beleaguered and exhausted by years of conflict,” compounded by the impact of the quake.
Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter.”
“They need, and must have, peace and protection,” he said.
“International law is clear that humanitarian aid must be able to reach those in need without impediment.”
Turk urged the military to “put people first, to prioritize their human rights and humanitarian needs and to achieve peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
“Instead of further futile investment in military force, the focus must be on the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.”
Japan’s finance minister calls US Treasury holdings ‘a card’ in tariff talks with Trump
- Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February
- The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff
TOKYO: Japan’s massive holdings of US Treasurys can be “a card on the table” in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.
“It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo.
Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of US government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.
Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option.
Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys.
Kato stressed that various factors would be on the negotiating table with Trump, implying that a promise not to sell Treasurys could help coax Washington into an agreement favorable for Japan.
Trump has disrupted decades of American trade policies, including with key security allies like Japan, by i mposing big import taxes, or tariffs, on a wide range of products.
A team of Japanese officials was in Washington this week for talks on the tariffs.
The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff. The bigger tariffs will hurt at a time when Japanese economic growth is weakening.
Asian holdings of Treasurys have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to the most recent figures.
But some analysts worry China or other governments could liquidate their US Treasury holdings as trade tensions escalate.
US government bonds are traditionally viewed as a safe financial asset, and recent spikes in yields of those bonds have raised worries that they might be losing that status due to Trump’s tariff policies.
Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia
- The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary
- The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military
THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said.
The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports.
The man “confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,” the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday.
A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone.
The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary.
Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania.
Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.
