OSTUNI – Oscar-winning Canadian director, Paul Haggis, was released from house arrest following sexual assault claims after 16 days on Monday, reported his lawyer, Michele Laforgia. “Our request to revoke house arrest was accepted by the judge without further measures, so Mr. Haggis is free,” he told news agency, Reuters. 

 On June 19, the film director was arrested for sexual assault against a 28-year-old British aspiring film consultant between June 12-15. He was accused of assaulting the woman in the B&B where he was staying in Ostuni for the Allora film festival. He has now been released while authorities continue to investigate the allegations.

 The 28-year-old underwent a cross-examination, in which judge Vilma Gilli ruled that it “not only confirmed the absence of coercive violent conduct by the suspect in order to force her to perform sexual acts but revealed a complex affair that negates the original judgment contained in the warrent of Haggis’ inability to resist his sexual instincts.”

 Laforgia requested the revocation of the precautionary measure, which has now been accepted. 

“The methods of meeting between the suspect and the injured person,” explained Judge Gilli, as well as “the spontaneous stay” of the woman “at the suspect's residence even after the abuse, the moments of conviviality between them during the days or the ordinary messaging of their commitments and travel, the farewell procedures adopted by the injured person (a note left by the woman at the hotel before he left her at the airport at dawn on June 15 ), signify a complexity of interactions between the parties which at present, weakens the negative judgment of Haggis' personality as a subject prone to physical or mental violence.”

 Judge Gilli also ruled, “the judicial proceedings against Haggis in the New York State Court do not offer any significance to the risk of reiteration, as they are merely civil in nature, in the absence of any verification, even if only investigative, of the validity of the allegations and the absence of slanderous intent.” 

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