Harvey Weinstein released on $1mln bail, faces up to 25 years prison time if convicted

Oscar-winner Harvey Weinstein, who was arrested on charges of rape, was on Friday released on $1 million bail with constant electronic monitoring and a ban on traveling beyond New York and Connecticut.

Earlier Friday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) charged the Hollywood producer with rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct from encounters with two different women.

He was granted bail of $10 million including property, or $1 million in cash. He opted to pay $1 million in cash, according to the US media.

Several media report stated that the judge also imposed a temporary protective order directing Weinstein to stay away from the two women whose complaints prompted the charges.

The case was adjourned to July 30.

Earlier in the day, Weinstein turned himself in to New York police to face the charges against him.

More than 80 women, including stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd and Angelina Jolie, accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, which the former has denied.

Once one of the biggest power centres in Hollywood for independent cinema, Weinstein had a spectacular fall from grace after a New York Times investigation unveiled his history of sexual misconduct. The number increased further in another investigation by Ronan Farrow for the New Yorker.

Farrow, who won Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the Weinstein scandal along with the New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, said it was an "incredible and unexpected moment" for the accusers as they did not believe they would every see justice.

As women opened up about Weinstein's history of sexually abusing and assaulting them, others from across the world came forward with their own accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men, triggering the global #MeToo movement.

"Weinstein had until recently seemed untouchable, harnessing his wealth and his influence in the movie industry to intimidate women out of speaking publicly and, only three years ago, withstand an investigation into groping allegations," the NYT report said.

The criminal sex act charge against Weinstein stems from an encounter with Lucia Evans, who told The New Yorker and then investigators from the Manhattan district attorney's office that Hollywood producer forced her to perform oral sex on him during what she thought would be a casting meeting.

The victim in the rape case has not been publicly identified.

Weinstein has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting movie stars and employees of his former namesake company over the course of decades and then paying them or coercing them to stay silent.

Weinstein's lawyer Brafman declined to comment, the report said.

In the past, Brafman had said that Weinstein denied any allegations of "nonconsensual sex".

Authorities opened investigation into Weinstein's conduct. Prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance conducted dozens of interviews in New York and elsewhere and issued hundreds of subpoenas, and their inquiry is not over.

(With Agencies Input)