New York (AFP)

The lawyers of former US TV star Bill Cosby, sentenced in 2018 to a minimum of three years in prison during a symbolic trial of the #MeToo movement, pleaded Monday in front of Pennsylvania judges in hopes of to obtain the annulment of his conviction.

Bill Cosby, 82, formerly adulated and considered the embodiment of the ideal father, was convicted in April 2018 by a Pennsylvania judge of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, Andrea Constand, 15 years earlier.

The actor, figure of the struggle for the emancipation of black Americans, was found guilty after a second trial in which five women, in addition to Andrea Constand, claiming to have been abused by the actor, could testify.

The first trial, where only one accused other than Ms. Constand was allowed to testify, resulted in a reversal: the jurors could not reach a unanimous agreement on a verdict.

On Monday, the actor's lawyers - who were not present at the hearing - pleaded before a panel of three appeals judges meeting in Harrisburg, confirmed Andrew Wyatt, spokesman for Mr. Cosby.

They argued, in essence, that the judge should not have allowed the testimony of these five women, on the grounds that their experience was not sufficiently comparable to that of Ms. Constand, according to several media present on site.

They also tried to argue that a Montgomery County attorney decided in 2005 not to sue Mr. Cosby for lack of evidence and that this decision should have prevented his successors from relaunching the lawsuits, according to several media reports.

But the judges have repeatedly challenged the arguments of the actor's lawyers, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

No decision was issued Monday, and the judges did not say when they would return it.

"Mr. Cosby hopes that the Pennsylvania Court of Appeal will recognize that he did not receive a fair and impartial trial," Wyatt said in a statement after the hearing.

"Mr. Cosby is only asking for the same access to justice as any member of society, regardless of the color of his skin, his wealth, or his notoriety," he added.

Bill Cosby's conviction was seen as a great victory for #MeToo, even though the actor's indictment dates back to 2015, two years before the start of the movement launched by the revelations of alleged sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein cinema.

The latter, who was charged in New York with a sexual assault and a rape on two women, must appear in court in Manhattan from 9 September.

© 2019 AFP