“This is not a blow to the movement,” MeToo founder Tarana Burke stated defiantly as she responded to the overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in New York.

“It is a clarion call and we are prepared to answer that call,” she proclaimed.

Her rallying call came after a New York Court of Appeals ruled that Weinstein, once one of Hollywood’s most successful and influential producers, had not received a fair trial back in 2020 because prosecutors called witnesses whose accusations were not part of the charges against him.

The consequence: the judges ordered Weinstein face a new trial.

Arthur Aidala, the movie mogul’s lawyer, hailed the decision as a “victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York,” adding that “there are still people who are very unpopular in our society, but we still have to apply the law fairly to them at that trial.

“The law was not applied fairly to Harvey Weinstein,” he said.

Weinstein’s New York trial was pivotal for the MeToo movement: the awareness campaign against sexual abuse which started going viral online after several women came forward alleging that he had sexually abused them.

Weinstein has always maintained his innocence and his defence team said at the time of the New York trial that sex between the movie executive and accusers was consensual.

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