Harvey Weinstein hospitalised after 'alarming blood test' amid claims of 'substandard medical care' at New York jail
3 December 2024, 05:49
Harvey Weinstein has been hospitalised following an "alarming blood test," his lawyer confirmed on Monday.
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The disgraced movie mogul's hospitalisation comes days after his team filed a legal claim alleging 'substandard medical care' at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
Weinstein, 72, was sent to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for an "emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention," his lawyer Imran Ansari said in a statement.
"It is expected that he will remain there until his condition stabilises."
Mr Ansari added: "His deprivation of care is not only medical malpractice, but a violation of his constitutional rights." A spokesperson for New York City's Department of Correction did not immediately respond to an email.
The agency's inmate database confirmed that Weinstein had been transferred from Rikers Island to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward in Manhattan.
Weinstein has been in city custody since earlier this year after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction in the state.
The case is set to be retried in 2025. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing.
In a legal filing last week, Weinstein's legal team accused the city of providing him with substandard medical care for a litany of medical afflictions, which include chronic myeloid leukaemia and diabetes.
"When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IVs, clothes that had not been washed for weeks, and he had not even been provided clean underwear - hardly sanitary conditions for someone with severe medical conditions," Mr Ansari said in a statement that likened Rikers Island to a "gulag."
The troubled jail complex, located on an island in New York City's East River, has faced growing scrutiny for its mistreatment of detainees and dangerous conditions.
Last week, a federal judge cleared the way for a possible federal takeover of the jail system, finding the city had placed its incarcerated population in "unconstitutional danger."
A publicist for Weinstein, Juda Engelmayer, echoed the allegation in a statement of her own Monday.
"Mr Weinstein, who is suffering from a number of illnesses, including leukaemia, has been deprived of the medical attention that someone in his medical state deserves, prisoner or not," he said.
"In many ways, this mistreatment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."
