Canadian two-time Oscar winning
director and screenwriter Paul haggis was released Monday after
being detained for 16 days on charges of raping a 28-year-old
British woman in a B&B at Ostuni in Puglia for three days in
mid-June.
A judge said his alleged victim's account of the case "not only
confirmed the absence of coercive violent conduct on the part of
the accused but revealed a complex affair that negates the
original judgement contained in the warrant," namely that Haggis
was unable to "resist his sexual instincts".
Haggis, 69, who denies inflicting the June 12-15 alleged ordeal
on the woman, won his Academy awards as producer and
screenwriter of the 2004 film Crash, which he also directed.
He also wrote the Oscar winning Clint Eastwood vehicle Million
Dollar Baby (2004).
Haggis had been under house arrest since June 19.
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