Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the U.S., Swiss officials announced on Monday. The French film director, is now a free man in Switzerland after 10 months in custody.
Roman Polanski, 76, was arrested in September 2009, upon entering Zurich to accept a Zurich Film Festival award. Swiss authorities arrested him based on an international arrest warrant issued by the U.S. government in 2005 over a child sexual abuse offense he committed in 1977 in Los Angeles. Polanski had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old at the time, but fled to Europe just ahead of his sentencing.
Polanski was granted house arrest by Switzerland after submitting a $4.2 million deposit. For the last 10 months, he was living in his chalet in the Swiss city of Gstaad under electronic surveillance awaiting Monday’s ruling.
According to Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf the extradition request was turned down because the U.S. failed to grant access to records from a hearing carried out in January.
The hearing was conducted by Roger Gunson, the public prosecutor from Polanski’s original 1977 case. It concerned Polanski’s claim that in 1977, he had been assured that the 42 days he already spent in a psychiatric unit of a Californian prison, would constitute the entire term of his sentence. If this proved to be the case, there would be no reason to extradite him to the U.S. because the sentence would already have been served.
“Considering the persisting doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case, the request has to be rejected,” ruled Widmer-Schlumpf in a published statement.
The second reason the minister gave for denying the U.S. request was based on a principle of the international law known as “protection of confidence.” Polanski kept a home in Switzerland since 2006, and regularly came and went from the country. The U.S. was aware of this but only filed the extradition request in 2009.
“These circumstances justified a confidence basis and Roman Polanski would not have decided to go to the film festival in Zürich in September 2009 if he had not trusted that the journey would not entail any legal disadvantages for him,” said Widmer-Schlumpf.
In 1997, the rape victim, Samantha Geimer, publicly forgave Polanski and told the New York Daily News that she “got over it a long time ago.” Geimer even wrote to the Los Angeles Times in 2003 saying that Polanski should be allowed to return to the U.S. to accept the Best Director Oscar he won for The Pianist.
Roman Polanski is the director of many critically acclaimed films including three Academy Awards for The Pianist. He also won Oscars for Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and Tess (1979).
Roman Polanski, 76, was arrested in September 2009, upon entering Zurich to accept a Zurich Film Festival award. Swiss authorities arrested him based on an international arrest warrant issued by the U.S. government in 2005 over a child sexual abuse offense he committed in 1977 in Los Angeles. Polanski had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old at the time, but fled to Europe just ahead of his sentencing.
Polanski was granted house arrest by Switzerland after submitting a $4.2 million deposit. For the last 10 months, he was living in his chalet in the Swiss city of Gstaad under electronic surveillance awaiting Monday’s ruling.
According to Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf the extradition request was turned down because the U.S. failed to grant access to records from a hearing carried out in January.
The hearing was conducted by Roger Gunson, the public prosecutor from Polanski’s original 1977 case. It concerned Polanski’s claim that in 1977, he had been assured that the 42 days he already spent in a psychiatric unit of a Californian prison, would constitute the entire term of his sentence. If this proved to be the case, there would be no reason to extradite him to the U.S. because the sentence would already have been served.
“Considering the persisting doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case, the request has to be rejected,” ruled Widmer-Schlumpf in a published statement.
The second reason the minister gave for denying the U.S. request was based on a principle of the international law known as “protection of confidence.” Polanski kept a home in Switzerland since 2006, and regularly came and went from the country. The U.S. was aware of this but only filed the extradition request in 2009.
“These circumstances justified a confidence basis and Roman Polanski would not have decided to go to the film festival in Zürich in September 2009 if he had not trusted that the journey would not entail any legal disadvantages for him,” said Widmer-Schlumpf.
In 1997, the rape victim, Samantha Geimer, publicly forgave Polanski and told the New York Daily News that she “got over it a long time ago.” Geimer even wrote to the Los Angeles Times in 2003 saying that Polanski should be allowed to return to the U.S. to accept the Best Director Oscar he won for The Pianist.
Roman Polanski is the director of many critically acclaimed films including three Academy Awards for The Pianist. He also won Oscars for Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and Tess (1979).
