It’s been a busy month for high-profile criminal proceedings.As Serial fans are well aware, Adnan Syed’s case returned to court in Baltimore , featuring testimony from alibi witness Asia McClain. Bill Cosby will proceed toward a trial, after a judge rejected a motion to dismiss charges of aggravated indecent assault. And in Canada, another major case has captured a nation’s attention: media personality Jian Ghomeshi’s trial on sexual assault charges.The first of two scheduled trials against Ghomeshi, a former CBC Radio host, began last week. Dramatic revelations and testimony from the first days of the trial have already dominated headlines across Canada."I was pushed up against the wall, slapped a couple of times, and then slapped again,” actress Lucy DeCoutere testified in a Toronto court on Thursday.DeCoutere is one of more than 20 people who have accused Ghomeshi of sexual assault.Ghomeshi has pleaded not guilty and publicly renounced the allegations. In one statement made through his lawyer, Ghomeshi said he “does not engage in non-consensual role play or sex and any suggestion of the contrary is defamatory." His lawyer has not responded to Refinery29's request for comment on the case.The trial has brought up all too familiar questions about credibility, victim blaming, and the way media and justice mechanisms treat women who accuse powerful men of sexual assault.Here’s what you need to know about the case.A former member of ' 90s band Moxy Früvous , and host of CBC Radio One’s music program Q, Ghomeshi was a popular media personality until the charges against him surfaced in 2014. CBC Radio is akin to America’s NPR, and Ghomeshi was one of its most beloved hosts, having parlayed his music cred into increasingly powerful roles at the station.“I felt like Jian was CBC God,” one former CBC producer who claims Ghomeshi violently assaulted her told the Toronto StarIn spite of his charismatic and “squeaky-clean” public image, Ghomeshi’s alleged unsavory behavior toward young women was reportedly common knowledge in the inner circles of Canadian media. Journalism students at the University of Western Ontario, for example, were discouraged from applying for internships at Q, The Star reported, after a 2012 report that he behaved inappropriately toward an intern.

To date, more than 20 people have accused Ghomeshi of behavior ranging from inappropriate texting and groping to violent punching, choking, biting, and forced penetration using his fingers.

Ghomeshi is currently standing trial for four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking. If convicted of sexual assault, Ghomeshi faces a maximum penalty of 18 months; the choking charge carries a possible sentence of life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.By January 2015, a total of seven formal charges of sexual assault were brought against Ghomeshi. Two of those, however, were dropped in May 2015 , because prosecutors lacked a reasonable prospect of conviction.The remaining charge of sexual assault against a former CBC employee will be taken up in a second trial, set to start in June 2016.The majority of women who have leveled claims against Ghomeshi have chosen to remain anonymous. All but one of the complaints that are part of the current trial are subject to a publication ban, which prohibits media from publicizing anything about their identities.Lucy-Anne DeCoutere, an actress and Royal Canadian Air Force captain who alleges that Ghomeshi attacked her on a date in 2003, was one of the first accusers to publicly reveal her identity. She told CBC’s The Current that during a seemingly normal makeout, Ghomeshi suddenly began choking her and slapped her repeatedly.Reva Seth, a lawyer and best-selling author, wrote about what she says was her own violent encounter with Ghomeshi on The Huffington Post . In her post, Seth anticipates the victim-blaming question of why she didn’t do anything about the assault in the immediate aftermath: “As a lawyer, I'm well aware that the scenario was just a ‘he said/she said’ situation. I was aware that I, as a woman who had had a drink or two, shared a joint, had gone to his house willingly and had a sexual past, would be eviscerated.”