Swiss Reject U.S. Request to Extradite Polanski

GENEVA — Switzerland will not extradite the film director Roman Polanski to the United States to face charges of unlawful sex with a minor because of a possible fault in the American application for his extradition, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a press conference on Monday.

The Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, right, with Justice Ministry Director Rudolf Wyss during a news conference in Bern on Monday.

“He’s a free man,” she said.

Mr. Polanski was arrested on an international warrant issued by the United States on charges dating from 1977. The director fled on the eve of sentencing in California because of fear that the presiding intended to renege what his defense lawyers said was a deal to avoid a prison sentence.

Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf said the American authorities had rejected a request by her ministry for records of a hearing by the prosecutor in the case, Roger Gunson, in January 2010 which should have established whether the judge who tried the case in 1977 had assured Mr. Polanski that time he spent in a psychiatric unit would constitute the whole of the period of imprisonment he would serve.

“If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the U.S. extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation,” the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement.

Swiss authorities jailed the Polish-born filmmaker in Zurich in September 2009 in response to the American warrant but in December allowed him to move to his chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad under house arrest on bail of $4.5 million pending a decision on his extradition.

A spokeswoman for the United States Justice Department declined to comment Monday on Switzerland’s decision.

Switzerland has decided not to extradite Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski to the United States.
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Switzerland has ruled the Oscar-winning director will not be extradited to the United States, from where he fled in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

"Considering all the aspects of this case – and in particular the extradition request which is not satisfying as far as the presentation of the facts of the case is concerned and the principles of state action deriving from international public order – the extradition request has to be rejected," the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The United States has accepted the decision, and cannot appeal.

The 76-year-old filmmaker was taken into custody in September when he arrived in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival in Zurich. Polanski has been held under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland for several months.

"I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else," Polanski said in May, as officials spent months pondering his fate.

The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" was accused of serving his victim champagne and drugs in 1977 during a modeling shoot in Los Angeles, then raping her. Polanski was originally sentenced to 90-days of "diagnostic study," but when the judge decided to change his sentence, he ran.

The French-born filmmaker who escaped the Holocaust and grew up in Poland has continued to direct films in Europe, including "Frantic" with Harrison Ford and "The Pianist," which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director in 2002.

Polanski’s most recent film, "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor, earned the director praise from critics.

Not everyone is a fan, however. Actress Charlotte Lewis claims Polanski sexually abused her when she was 16 in 1982.

"He just said very coldly, 'If you're not a big enough girl to have sex with me, you're not big enough to do the screen test," the "Golden Child" star claimed he told her. "'I must sleep with every actress that I work with, that's how I get to know them, how I mold them.'"

However, despite the rape allegations, many in Hollywood have continued to compliment his filmmaking skills and continue to work with him in Europe. Most recently, Woody Allen, who has seen his own share of controversy, said Polanski has suffered enough.

"It's something that happened many years ago ... he has suffered, he has not been allowed to go to the United States. He was embarrassed by the whole thing," Allen said during the Cannes Film Festival.

"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it," the actor/director said. "[The critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad."

Polanski rose to fame in the 1960s with "Rosemary's Baby," which launched the career of Mia Farrow. He later married actress Sharon Tate. The following year, a pregant Tate was brutally murdered by members Charles Manson's cult. Polanski directed several more films in the United States, including the Oscar-winning "Chinatown," before his flight to Europe.

Reuters) - Switzerland said on Monday it would not send Roman Polanski back to the United States to face sentencing for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, freeing the Oscar-winning director from 10 months arrest.

Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said she had decided against extradition because of potential technical faults in the U.S. extradition requests but also because Polanski had for years come to Switzerland in good faith.

"He is a free man since 1130 today," she told a news conference in Switzerland's capital Berne.

"He can go to France or to Poland, anywhere where he will not be arrested," she said.

Polanski, 76, who won a best director Oscar for his moving portrait of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto of World War Two in "The Pianist," was still at his mountain chalet in the chic ski town of Gstaad, where he had been held under house arrest.

The electronic foot bracelet that the Swiss have used to control his movements had been switched off, the minister said.

"This is not about qualifying a crime. That is not our duty. This is not about deciding on guilt or innocence," she said.

The Swiss minister said while the United States could appeal this decision internationally, she did not expect that to happen.

FREE MAN

The announcement follows months of uncertainty over whether Polanski would have to return to the United States after having been arrested in September 2009 upon arrival in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.

"It's an enormous satisfaction and a great relief after the pain suffered by Roman Polanski and his family," said Polanski's lawyer Herve Temime. His arrest prompted an outcry in the global film industry and in some political circles in France, where he has been a long-time resident, with directors from Woody Allen to Martin Scorsese and Jean-Luc Godard expressing support for Polanski.

After a short jail stint, Polanski, who holds dual French and Polish citizenship, was put under house arrest in December 2009 at Gstaad while Swiss officials awaited the outcome of U.S. legal proceedings.

Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with the girl but fled the United States on the eve of his 1978 sentencing because he believed a judge might overrule his plea and put him in jail for 50 years.

Polanski has lived in Europe ever since, facing the prospect of arrest the moment he set foot back on U.S. soil while continuing his film career outside Hollywood.

Born to Polish-Jewish parents in 1933, his life was marked by a narrow escape from the Krakow ghetto and by the murder of his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, by followers of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969.

Polanski is also known for classics such as "Chinatown," which earned 11 Oscar nominations, and "Rosemary's Baby."

He completed his latest film "The Ghost," based on a Robert Harris's best-seller, while under arrest in Switzerland.

I believe one the the finest movies Mr. Polanski had made was "Bitter Moon" If you can find it, it's worth seeing

He made great films but I would like to see him in jail that would be worth seeing

Polanski makes first appearance since house arrest ends
Film director Roman Polanski has made his first public appearance since being released from house arrest in Switzerland four days ago.


A press scrum greeted Roman Polanski at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Polanski went to see his wife perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival but did not speak to the media.

In an interview to be aired later, however, he thanked Swiss supporters.

The US has said it will keep pressing for his extradition, in order to sentence him for having sex with an underage girl in 1977.

An Interpol warrant for his arrest remains in effect for 188 countries, the Associated Press news agency reports.

"For the moment, I'm happy to be free and to be able to do the things I was kept from doing," Polanski told Swiss television.

His wife, the actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, did not mention her husband during her hour-long performance, and Polanski did not appear on stage.

The Swiss justice ministry ordered the director's release after concluding that the US had not made a convincing argument for his extradition.

The US had failed to disprove Polanski's argument that he fled America before sentencing in 1978 because he believed the judge would renege on a plea agreement, it added.

US state department spokesman Philip Crowley responded by saying: "The rape of a 13-year-old girl by an adult who should know better and does know better is a crime. We will continue to seek justice in this case and we will evaluate our options."

Youv'e got to love MJ I think RP was a saint by comparison.
S.

Polanski Spotted At Home Of Swiss Jazz Fest Founder
By REUTERS

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - French film director Roman Polanski was photographed arriving at the chalet of Montreux jazz festival founder Claude Nobs on Saturday, hours ahead of a concert by Polanski's singer wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

The Lausanne daily "24 Heures" posted a photo on its site of Polanski at the wheel of a black Range Rover, with Seigner in the passenger seat, arriving on Saturday afternoon at Nobs' home in the village of Caux above Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva.

It was the first public sighting of Polanski since he was freed on Monday from house arrest in his chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad after Swiss judicial authorities announced they would not extradite him to the United States.

Festival sources told Reuters that Polanski, a friend of Nobs for years, was expected to attend his wife's concert starting at 1800 GMT in Auditorium Stravinski. "He will certainly be there," said one source.

Polanski, 76, was arrested last September in Zurich, where he was to receive a film festival award, on the basis of a U.S. extradition request.

U.S. authorities want him to face sentencing related to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.

Swiss officials turned down the U.S. request, citing potential technical faults and saying it failed to clarify whether the director of films including "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" had in fact served his sentence more than 30 years ago.

Seigner, lead singer of the rock band Ultra Orange, is opening act on Saturday, the last day of the prestigious two-week annual event.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay)

Idiot Blut again the courts and US system more criminals than RP!
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