NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein has been moved to a New York City hospital after a judge approved the ailing ex-studio boss’s request to stay there rather than in jail when he’s not in court for his #MeToo retrial.
Judge Paul Goetz late Thursday ordered that Weinstein be immediately relocated from the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex to the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan so he can receive necessary medical treatment.
Weinstein’s lawyers lobbied for the move as jury selection got underway this week.
They argued in court papers that being locked up in a sometimes freezing jail cell was exacerbating the Oscar-winning producer's health issues, which include chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes and walking difficulties that require a wheelchair to get in and out of court.
Goetz’s order will remain in effect at least until next Thursday, when he is set to hold a hearing to discuss the matter further.
A different judge, Curtis Farber, is presiding over Weinstein's retrial. The case will resume Monday with more jury selection after nine jurors were picked this week. In all, 12 jurors and six alternates need to be seated.
Weinstein is being tried again on rape and sexual assault charges 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 has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.
Weinstein has been back and forth numerous times to Bellevue in recent months for treatment of various maladies. At a pretrial hearing in January, he railed against his treatment at Rikers, telling Farber he wanted to “get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.”
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.”
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, wearing a risk wristband, for the third day of jury selection in his retrial, Thursday, April 17, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for the third day of jury selection in his retrial, Thursday, April 17, 2025 in New York. (Mike Segar/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for the third day of jury selection in his retrial, Thursday, April 17, 2025 in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool)
TOKYO (AP) — A 14th century Korean Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple nearly 13 years ago was returned on Monday, following a yearslong legal battle between Japan and South Korea over its ownership that had further strained sensitive ties between the two Asian neighbors.
Dozens of temple members and local residents standing by the roadside applauded to welcome the statue as a truck carrying a wooden container with it arrived at Kannonji, a temple on Japan’s western island of Tsushima.
The statue is expected to be kept at a local museum following a ceremony at the temple later in the day.
The gilt bronze statue Bodhisatva — worshipped for mercy and compassion — is depicted in a sitting position and measures about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in height. It has been designated a cultural asset of the region and was one of two statues stolen in 2012 from Kannonji by thieves who were looking to sell them in South Korea.
The South Korean government had returned the other statue to the Japanese temple soon after the authorities recovered it from the thieves, who were arrested and charged.
But the Bodhisatva got trapped in legal dispute after Buseoksa, a South Korean temple in the western coastal city of Seosan, filed a lawsuit, claiming it as the rightful owner.
South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2023 ruled in favor of the Japanese temple, ordering the South Korean temple to return the statue. After all the paperwork was completed in January, the statue remained on a 100-day loan to the South Korean temple for a farewell exhibit.
The temple in South Korea said it was saddened by the statue’s return and insisted it was the rightful owner.
“All our faithful ... feel like crying,” Woonou, the temple’s chief monk, told The Associated Press over the phone. He insisted that Japan “plundered” the statue from Korea and deserves "international condemnation.”
Sekko Tanaka, a former head monk at Kannonji, told reporters that the handover ceremony at the South Korean temple on Saturday was “truly amicable and we shook hands.”
“A calm after a storm,” he said, adding that he felt relieved to see the dispute resolved while he is still alive.
Tanaka said he hoped South Koreans would visit Tsushima and discover its centuries-old cultural ties with Korea, though there will now be higher security around the statue.
Japan and South Korea have long had disputes over Japanese atrocities during its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, though their ties improved due to shared concern over regional security.
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
A 14th-century Buddhist statue of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, stolen in October 2012 and taken to South Korea, sits after returned at Kannon Temple on Tsushima Island, southwestern Japan, Monday, May 12, 2025. (Haruna Furuhashi/Kyodo News via AP)
Delivery workers carry a 14th-century Buddhist statue of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, stolen in October 2012 and taken to South Korea, into Kannon Temple upon its return, on Tsushima Island, southwestern Japan, Monday, May 12, 2025. (Haruna Furuhashi/Kyodo News via AP)
A 14th-century Buddhist statue of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, stolen from Japan's Kannonji temple in 2012, sits at Buseok Temple in Seosan, South Korea, Monday, May 5, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
