Harvey Weinstein has emergency heart surgery

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is in hospital in New York for emergency heart surgery, his lawyers have told BBC News.

Lawyers for Weinstein said he was taken on Sunday evening from the Rikers Island jail to Bellevue hospital. They did not provide further details.

His lawyers say he has been suffering from multiple health conditions, and has been experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein, 72, was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 in New York, and jailed for 23 years. Those convictions were overturned this April when an appeal judge ruled he did not receive a fair trial. He faces a possible retrial later this year.

Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress, in 2013.

In his appeal, however, the court said prosecutors in the pivotal #MeToo case called witnesses whose accusations were not part of the charges against him.

Weinstein for has also been sentenced to 16 years in prison in a separate rape trial in California, against which he is appealing.

Weinstein has struggled with serious health problems, and has been admitted to hospital multiple times in recent years.

In July, he was treated for Covid-19 and double pneumonia.

In 2020, he was admitted to hospital with chest pains. He also was taken to Bellevue hospital that same year to open a blocked artery, according to CBS.

He also has diabetes and high blood pressure.

More than 100 people have made rape and misconduct allegations about Weinstein dating back to the late 1970s.

The decision by his accusers to come forward, and his subsequent conviction in New York, galvanised the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse by powerful men.

Weinstein has always maintained his innocence and argued he was the victim of a “set-up”.

He co-founded the Miramax film studio, which produced hits including Shakespeare in Love – which won best picture at the Academy Awards – and Pulp Fiction.

His films have received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes.