Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis arrested in Italy on sexual assault charges

FILE PHOTO: Paul Haggis arrives at the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California January 17, 2016. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo

(Reuters) - Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter and director Paul Haggis was arrested on Sunday in southern Italy on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury allegedly inflicted upon an unidentified woman, with Haggis denying the accusations.

Haggis was charged with forcing a young "foreign" (non-Italian) woman to undergo sexual intercourse over the course of two days in Ostuni, Italy, according to a note on Sunday from the public prosecutor of the nearby city of Brindisi.