Polish Court Rejects US Request To Extradite Roman Polanski Over Child Sex Conviction
A request to extradite Roman Polanski to the US has been rejected in a Polish court.
Judge Dariusz Mazur at the district court in Krakow said the film director’s extradition was ‘inadmissible’.
Prosecutors in the US will be allowed to appeal the ruling, however.
The director served 42 days of a 90 day plea bargain in 1977 after he was convicted of unlawful sex with a minor, but fled the country when he discovered that he was likely to serve more time in prison.
Polanski was arrested at Jack Nicholson’s Los Angeles home on March 11, 1977, for the sexual assault of Samantha Geimer, a 13-year-old model he had been using in a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.
He was indicted on six charges, including criminal behaviour and rape, but pleaded not guilty on all counts.
He later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor in a deal which meant he would have to serve 90 days of psychiatric evaluation before his final sentencing.
He served 42 days of the evaluation before being released, and then fled to France, where he has citizenship and would be protected from extradition.
While the ruling, which is not legally binding, has been given in Polanski’s favour at this time, if an appeal is upheld, he may still be extradited.
The leader of the Law and Justice party, now in office in Poland, has said that Polanski’s standing will not help him if the ruling is made to extradite him.
Jarosław Kaczyński said: “There was open talk that he should not be made responsible for his deeds because he is an outstanding, world-famous film-maker. We will totally reject this attitude.”
The 82-year-old director of movies like ‘Chinatown’ and 'Rosemary’s Baby’ had been in Poland to shoot a new drama based on a novel by Robert Harris.
He had also appeared in court in February this year, but the judge adjourned the case to consider further documents provided to the court by Polanski’s lawyers.
Now, if the court in Krakow rules in favour of extradition, it will then be up to the Polish minister of justice to have the final say on whether to send him back to the US.
Polanski was previously arrested in Zurich in 2009, where he was jailed for two months and then put under house arrest at his home in Gstaad.
He was later released and declared 'a free man’ by the Swiss authorities, who rejected the US request for extradition.
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Image credits: Newsweek/Rex Features/Reuters
