WARSAW, Poland-Poland’s former justice minister on Thursday said he backed extraditing Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski to the United States to face charges of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
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Filmmaker Roman Polanski tells reporters he can “breath with relief” after a Polish judge ruled that the law forbids his extradition to the US, where in 1977 he pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor, in Krakow, Poland, Friday, October 30, 2015.
The decision in favour of the 82-year-old director of “The Pianist”, “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” can still be appealed, court spokeswoman Beata Gorszczyk said earlier Friday. He now lives in France.
These charges are dropped after he pleads guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in a plea bargain.
The Polish court has rejected the latest bid to extradite Roman Polanski to the U.S. Polanski, 82, has both French and Polish citizenship.
Polanski has since been engaged in a decades-long cat-and-mouse game with U.S. officials seeking his extradition for trial, before a global audience split between continuing outrage and forgiveness for his acts. It’s been a complicated case as the district attorney has sought extradition despite the fact that the victim in the case doesn’t want to see it happen.
Polanski was born in Paris in 1933 to Polish Jewish parents, who later brought the family back to their native country.
Asked by a journalist if he were afraid the government’s appeal might be granted by a Polish court in the future, Polanski answered: “If the decision is on legal grounds, the elements of this case are clearly in my favor”. He also said California is unlikely to be able to incarcerate Polanski in humane fashion, given the filmmaker’s age; he’s 82.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has long insisted that Polanski remains a fugitive and subject to immediate arrest in the United States because he fled the country before sentencing. He was jailed while visiting Switzerland that year, and placed under house arrest after an extradition request by the United States.
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In Switzerland, authorities said they had not been given enough information about the case to justify sending Polanski to the United States for sentencing.
