Filmmaker Paul Haggis can finally exhale, as an Italian judge on Monday ordered the end of his imprisonment. As prosecutors determine whether to continue their investigation into the allegations of sexual assault against Haggis, the judge approved his release from house detention, according to US media cited by Deadline.
After an anonymous British lady told police that the director engaged in twice of non-consensual intercourse with her while he was in Italy to take part in an arts festival in the vacation town of Ostuni, Haggis had been held by police in a hotel in southern Italy since June 19.
Haggis originally came to Italy to attend the Allora Fest film festival, which he was involved in organizing and where he was due to hold a number of masterclasses when the anonymous complainant flew in to join him. After her police complaint and Haggis’s subsequent arrest came to light the festival went ahead without the director earlier this month, as per Variety.
Haleigh Breest, a film publicist, has filed a lawsuit against Haggis in a US court, claiming that he sexually assaulted her in January 2013. Breest first filed the complaint in December 2017, but the COVID-19 epidemic caused the hearings to be postponed.
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