Polanski to challenge extradition attempt
Polanski to challenge extradition attempt
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Monday, 28, Sep 2009 04:58
By Lewis Bazley.
Legal representatives for director Roman Polanski will look to fight a forthcoming extradition order issued by US authorities, they have said.
The filmmaker was arrested in Switzerland on Sunday in connection with a charge of sex with an underage girl and the US now has 60 days to submit a formal request for the director's extradition.
His lawyers have since expressed their surprise at Polanski's arrest - especially given The Pianist helmer's regular trips to Switzerland in the past 30 years - and said they will work to have the 76-year-old freed before working to overturn an extradition order.
Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer but fled the country before sentencing and now lives in Paris, which has limited extradition with the US.
He has since avoided countries with extradition agreements with the US, but was detained Switzerland having arrived at the Zurich Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award.
"Obviously we had no knowledge whatsoever of the plans to arrest Roman Polanski," said festival organiser Karl Spoerri.
"The jury decided months ago to honour Roman Polanski. There was never any suggestion at any time from Polanski's management or from Swiss authorities that Polanski would be detained."
Unlike on previous occasions, US authorities had been aware of the director's planned trip to Zurich and were able to prepare an arrest warrant, which Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said local officials had "no choice" but to honour.
"He obviously has the right to appeal and I think he will do so," she added.
Polanski had been trying to overturn the case based on allegations of misconduct by the judge who presided over the original trial.
However, Judge Peter Espinoza said Polanski must return to the US to apply for dismissal.
British author Robert Harris, who had worked recently with Polanski on a film of the former's novel The Ghost, told the Guardian there was "something very odd, very suspicious" about the director's arrest in Zurich.
"To my knowledge, Roman in recent years has travelled to Germany, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Russia and China. So why now, all of a sudden, is an elderly man grabbed off a plane on a Saturday night and stuffed into jail?"
Harris added: "This is a high-profile action designed to send out some sort of message to someone somewhere. No one condones what happened in the 70s, but I think this is pretty appalling."
Geiber, the victim at the centre of the case, has previously called for charges against Polanski to be dropped having sued the director herself, reaching an undisclosed settlement.