Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer complained Tuesday about the conditions in the cell where he is being held after his trial in Los Angeles, saying they were “unsanitary” and “almost medieval,” the Associated Press reported, citing news.ro.

Attorney Mark Werksman asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to rule on the issue at the start of the second day of jury selection in the former movie mogul’s trial on 11 counts of rape and sexual assault.

He said Weinstein was left alone in a wheelchair for three to four hours in an “unsanitary and smelly” cell in the courthouse before being taken back to jail.

“The conditions are almost medieval,” Werksman said.

“He is 70 years old. I am worried that he will survive this ordeal without a heart attack or a stroke,” the lawyer added.

Weinstein and the group of 71 jurors brought in Tuesday to fill out the initial questionnaire were not yet present when Werksman appeared.

The judge said she would speak with deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the jail and transports inmates to court, but that her authority to do so was limited.

“I’m not downplaying it, I’m just not sure there’s anything to do,” she said.

Shortly afterward, Weinstein, who is allowed to change into prison garb during his trial, was brought into the courtroom and slowly and gingerly climbed into a chair at the defense table.

Werksman then raised the issue again, suggesting that Weinstein did not have a toilet in his cell.

The judge answered: “He is not deprived of a toilet, there is a toilet in the cell. I will not let it be recorded in the protocol that he is deprived of a toilet.”

Werksman said he didn’t mean to suggest there was no toilet at all, but said: “It’s unsanitary, it’s practically unusable, it’s medieval.”

Weinstein’s lawyers repeatedly raised questions about his poor health, both during his trial in New York, where he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault, and during pretrial hearings in Los Angeles.

He was hospitalized with chest pains and underwent heart surgery immediately after his conviction in New York in February 2020, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 in prison in the early weeks of the pandemic.

His lawyers said he has diabetes and is “technically blind”. They asked the judge for permission to go to a third-party dentist because the one they see in prison is constantly pulling their teeth.

In court, he looks pale and frail, not at all like the somber man who presided over the Oscars every year.

Weinstein’s trial, which comes five years after women’s accounts of him sparked the #MeToo movement, is expected to last eight weeks. Given the slow process of selecting and selecting jurors from a pool of more than 200 jurors, opening statements are not expected until Oct. 24.