Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro says that he plans to appeal a decision not to extradite film director Roman Polanski to the US, where he faces a sentence for statutory rape.
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The filmmaker’s movements are restricted by an Interpol warrant in effect in 188 countries, but he has avoided extradition by traveling only between France, Poland and Switzerland, which in 2011 rejected a USA request to extradite Polanski.
Ziobro, who is also Poland’s Attorney General, told Polish Radio that Polanski “is accused of and wanted in connection with a brutal crime against a child, the rape of a child”.
In a statement, Ziobro’s office argued that the Krakow court’s decision defied a Polish-U.S. extradition agreement, under which “the defendant should be handed over to the United States”.
“I’ve chose to file to the supreme court an appeal over the ruling.in which the. court decided not to extradite Polanski to the U.S. in a situation when he’s accused of and wanted for. a rape of a child”, Ziobro was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.
He was charged with a number of felonies, including rape and sodomy, but prosecutors dropped those charges in a plea bargain that saw him plead guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.
According to an extradition agreement between Poland and the United States, the 82-year-old Polanski is eligible for extradition, Ziobro’s spokesman said.
– February: After a month and a half in the state prison at Chino, California, Polanski flees the United States to avoid the risk of a hefty sentence.
Polanski fled the USA in February 1978, shortly before being sentenced for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Last year, the Krakow judge ruling on the case found that Polanski served his punishment in confinement in the U.S., and later for 10 months – partly under house arrest – in Switzerland in 2009-2010 when the United States unsuccessfully sought his extradition there.
Paris-born Polanski, 83, has Polish and French citizenship. In 2003, he was a no-show at the Academy Awards ceremony where he won an Oscar for his film “The Pianist”. In July 2010 Swiss authorities declined the request by American authorities for extradition and freed Polanski from custody.
Explaining the decision to appeal the decision, Ziobro was quoted by the Polish radio station Tok FM as saying that the Polanski case was “for many Poles regarded as a litmus test” and it should prove that no people get preferential treatment due to their social status. Polish prosecutors question the filmmaker but do not detain him.
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– October 30: The court decides against extraditing Polanski, ruling the U.S. request “inadmissable”.
