Film director Paul Haggis has been detained in a hotel room in Southern Italy until a court hearing, and prosecutors have urged him to investigate allegations of a woman who had sex with her without her consent for two days. increase.
Barracutter in Brindisi, the port city of Puglia that forms the “heel” in southeastern Italy, was detained on Sunday for police investigation into a 69-year-old Canadian-born director, screenwriter and producer allegedly aggravated. Announced. Sexual violence and exacerbated personal injury.
They described the victim’s suspect as a “young foreign woman,” and state television and other Italian media said she was in English.
According to the media, Haggis began on Tuesday and came to a tourist destination in Ostuni to attend an art festival detained in a hotel room in the town.
An Italian lawyer in Haggis was in court on other issues Monday morning and could not seek comment.
On Sunday, Haggis U.S.-based lawyer Priya Chaudhry was unable to discuss evidence under Italian law with the Associated Press, but said, “I am convinced that all allegations against Mr. Haggis will be dismissed. He is completely innocent and willing to work fully with the authorities, so the truth will soon be revealed. “
Brindisi prosecutor Antonio Negro said on Monday that the exact date of this week’s hearing has not yet been determined.
Under Italian law, the judge, after hearing discussions from both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, decides whether the haggis can be released until possible additional investigations are made.
Judges can also determine if there is a risk of flight, or if they could falsify evidence or commit the same alleged crime, and order them to be put in jail or under house arrest. increase.
In a written statement on Sunday announcing that Haggis was detained, the prosecutor “according to the (investigation) elements collected,” Haggis said, “sexually to a young woman known to him for some time. I forced him to submit to the relationship. “
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The statement also said the woman was “forced to seek medical care.”
“A few days after the non-consensual relationship, the woman went to Brindisi Airport with a haggis,” the prosecutor said, “despite the unstable physical and psychological conditions, she was left there at dawn.” Insisted.
Airport officials and police noticed her “apparent confusion” and took her to Brindisi’s police headquarters, where police officers took her to a local hospital for inspection, the prosecution said.
Haggis is a director, producer and screenwriter.
He won the Oscar in 2006 for Crash’s best original script.
In recent years, Haggis has had legal problems resulting from accusations of sexual misconduct by four women in the United States.
After a civil lawsuit filed in New York in late 2017 alleging that he raped a spokeswoman, three other women, including another spokeswoman who said he had forced oral sex. I have filed a complaint of my sexual misconduct.
Haggis denied the original rape allegations in a counterclaim against the proceedings, saying the accuser and her lawyer demanded $ 9 million (£ 7.3 million) to avoid the proceedings.
Haggis described it as blackmail.
In a statement, Brindisi’s prosecutor said the woman “formalized her complaint and then quoted the situation being investigated for confirmation by investigators.”
In his film, Haggis tackles racism, euthanasia, and war, portraying himself as a defender of the vulnerable in his film.
The theme of the Ostuni Festival included equality, gender equality and solidarity.
