Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for rape has been overturned, with a New York court ordering a new trial in the landmark “MeToo” case.

The state’s highest court found the judge at the trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case.

In a 4-3 decision, it was decided Weinstein had not received a fair trial, with the court’s majority saying it was “an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behaviour”.

One of the judges who voted against the decision, Judge Madeline Singas, said the majority was “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative”.

She said the Court of Appeals was continuing a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence”.

Ms Singas added: “The majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability.”

The ruling by the Court of Appeals will mean a painful chapter in reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures looks likely to be reopened.

It was an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against the film producer dating back to the 1970s.

Read more: Harvey Weinstein: The fall of the king of Hollywood

Weinstein‘s accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas on the witness stand.

The 72-year-old has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison after being accused of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 following the landmark 2020 trial.

However, he will remain behind bars as he was also sentenced last year in Los Angeles to 16 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting an actress in a Beverly Hills Hotel.

The Los Angeles conviction is not affected by Thursday’s decision in New York.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg – who is already involved in a hush money trial against former president Donald Trump – will now decide whether Weinstein will receive a retrial.

A spokesperson for Mr Bragg said in an email: “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers said Thursday’s decision was a “major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence”, adding: “It will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”

Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Weinstein, said the decision was a victory for the defendant and any American charged with a crime, “no matter how popular or unpopular they are”.

Actress Ashley Judd, one of the first women to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, condemned the decision as an “act of institutional betrayal” to survivors of male sexual violence.

Speaking at a press conference in New York, Judd said she was trying to get the UN involved as she advocates for Convention 190 which concerns the elimination of all forms of harassment and violence in the world of work.

Once considered the most powerful man in Hollywood, Weinstein was accused by dozens of women claiming he bullied, pressured, coerced, or overpowered them while demanding sexual favours.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, and Lupita Nyong’o were some who accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, while actresses Asia Argento and Rose McGowan were among others who accused him of raping them.

He was also accused of reaching settlements to keep the stories quiet.

Weinstein had admitted his behaviour had “caused a lot of pain”, but has maintained his innocence throughout, saying any sexual activity was consensual.

The glut of allegations sparked #MeToo, a movement where alleged victims of sexual assault increasingly publicised their experiences, and many came forward against high-profile figures, especially in the entertainment industry.

Some states, including New York, California and New Jersey, responded to the campaign by passing laws that let women bring civil lawsuits seeking damages for sexual misconduct that occurred many years earlier even if the time limit had already passed.

But the stunning reversal of Weinstein’s conviction is the movement’s second major setback in the past two years after the US Supreme Court refused to hear prosecutors’ pleas to undo Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction that was overturned in 2021.

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Weinstein co-founded the entertainment company Miramax in 1979 whose hit movies included Pulp Fiction, Flirting With Disaster and Shakespeare In Love.

He was ousted from his now-defunct firm, The Weinstein Company, in 2017 after the New York Times reported nearly 30 years of rape and sexual harassment allegations against him.

The drive into the village of Jiljiliya is not what you expect on the West Bank. Imposing mansions line the route, with grand gates and lavish decorations.

That’s because this is where Palestinian Americans return to build their dream homes after years of hard work in the land of opportunity.

Like Omar Assad who came back after 45 years in Milwaukee. But for him, retirement was neither long nor happy. It was cut brutally short one freezing night in January 2022.

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He was returning from a game of cards when he was stopped at a makeshift checkpoint set up by the notorious Israeli army unit, Netzah Yehuda.

The IDF says he did not cooperate so the 78-year-old was detained with force.

Mraweh Mahmoud was with him.

“They took us down from the car and pushed me by the head,” he told Sky News. “The soldier was standing there and put an M16 in my head and said now I’ll shoot you.”

Mr Assad was tied up, gagged and blindfolded, Mr Mahmoud said, and forced to lie next to him. When the soldiers eventually left Mr Mahmoud realised Mr Assad was dead.

“I took his jacket off his head, I checked there’s no pulse, I shouted Omar, Omar,” he said.

Palestinian doctors say Mr Assad died in freezing temperatures of a stress-induced heart attack. An Israeli military report condemned the soldiers’ “moral failure and poor decision-making”.

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No link between death and soldiers’ errors, military prosecutors say

Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Mr Assad’s death.

But now the unit the soldiers came from is expected to be singled out by the US government and cut off from American funding, in the first-ever such move against any part of the Israeli military.

Reports claim the US State Department will apply the so-called Leahy Law against the unit, which prohibits US assistance to foreign military units guilty of gross human rights violations when their government fails to take sufficient action.

Why has Netzah Yehuda become infamous?

The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up to help ultra-orthodox Jews serve in the army. It mixes religion and soldiering. But in its ranks are also elements of extremist settler groups.

It has become infamous, implicated in one case of alleged abuse of Palestinians after another, many of which its soldiers have filmed on their own phones. Its soldiers have been prosecuted for human rights violations and accused of unlawful killings, electrocution, torture and sexual assault.

Israel’s government has fought a rearguard action against the looming US action.

Its prime minister called the prospect absurd and its defence minister Yoav Galant showed solidarity with the battalion’s soldiers this week saying “no one in the world can teach us about morals and values”.

But one organisation of ex-soldiers opposed to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories says the Israeli government knows this could be just the beginning of action against its military.

‘They’re terrified of the possible results’

Ori Givati from the NGO Breaking the Silence told Sky News: “They understand that this might open the Pandora’s box of what the occupation really is, and how it looks like to occupy millions with the military.

“And if that Pandora’s box will be opened and it is starting to open in recent months, I think they’re terrified of the possible results because they want to continue to occupy.”

Back in Jilijilya, Mr Assad’s family welcomes reports America will act against the soldiers they blame for his death but say that’s not enough – they want them brought to justice too.

Nazmia, Mr Assad’s widow, said: “God willing it will be good if they do this, but also punish them like what they did with him, arrest them and fire them from their positions.”

The parents of an Israeli hostage have told him “we love you, stay strong, survive” after he appeared with part of his arm missing in a video released by Hamas.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the Nova musical festival when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

The video shows him with his lower left arm missing; witnesses said it was blown off when he helped throw grenades out of a shelter where people were hiding.

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He reportedly used his shirt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding, but was captured.

Clearly under duress in the undated video, the 23-year-old criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying they should be “ashamed” for not securing the hostages’ release.

He also claims Israeli bombings have killed “about 70 detainees like me” and that the rest are living in an “underground hell without water, food, or sun”.

Mr Goldberg-Polin, who wears a red shirt and sits against a plain white wall, finishes with an appeal to his parents, telling them “stay strong” and “I love you so much, and miss you so much”.

His parents responded to Wednesday’s video by filming their own emotional response.

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Jon Polin says hearing his son for the first time in more than 200 days is “overwhelming”.

“We are relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all the other hostages, and all of those suffering in this region,” he says.

Mr Polin calls for the countries involved in negotiations to “be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done to reunite all of us with our loved ones and end the suffering in this region”.

His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, stares resolutely into the camera and tells him: “Hersh, if you can hear his, we heard your voice today for the first time in 201 days… I am telling you – we are telling you – we love you, stay strong, survive.”

The 23-year-old was born in California but moved to Jerusalem with his family when he was younger.

He was among about 250 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped in the initial Hamas attack, which also killed around 1,200 people.

Some hostages were freed in a deal last year, but more than 100 are still unaccounted for and there is huge pressure in Israel for the government to bring them home.

Israel’s aim to wipe out Hamas has so far killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authority.

Hundreds of thousands are also said to be on the brink of starvation and have been forced to flee the violence.

Fears are growing that a ground assault on the southern city of Rafah – where more than a million people are sheltering – is imminent after Mr Netanyahu said Israel was “moving ahead” with its plans.