Director Roman Polanski in Swiss custody

[allistar]

He has a house in Switzerland and has stayed there many times. Are you saying that, in order to execute an arrest warrent for another country in Switzerland, you have to know the exact time/date that a wanted fugative will enter the country?

[Mentors]

In a surprising move arranged by prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington, the authorities in Switzerland arrested the film director Roman Polanski late Saturday as he arrived at the Zurich airport, paving the way for his possible extradition to the United States in connection with a 32-year-old sex case.

 

Mr. Polanski, 76, a French citizen, was detained as he arrived to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival.

(...)

The arrest came as a shock to Mr. Polanski and those who have worked closely with him both on movies and in a continuing attempt to lift the outstanding arrest warrant against him. He had just finished shooting a film in Germany and often travels to Switzerland, where he maintains a home.

 

In Paris the French culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, said in a statement that he was astonished by the arrest. In a separate statement the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said he had spoken with his Swiss counterpart and communicated “the desire of the French authorities that the rights of Mr. Polanski be fully respected and that this affair rapidly find a favorable resolution.â€Â

 

The Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Polanski, the director of celebrated films like “Chinatown†and “Rosemary’s Baby,†was put in “provisional detention†pending extradition based on the arrest warrant from the United States. “Whether Roman Polanski will be effectively extradited to the U.S.A. or not can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalized,†the statement said. The ministry’s statement added that Mr. Polanski could fight extradition in various courts.

 

In Los Angeles a representative for prosecutors described the arrest as all but inevitable in a game of cat and mouse they had never stopped playing. “Any time word is received that Mr. Polanski is planning to be in a country that has an extradition treaty with the U.S., we go through diplomatic channels with the arrest warrant,†said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

 

Ms. Gibbons said extradition requests had been pursued several times in the past, particularly when Mr. Polanski was believed to be planning a trip from France, where he lives, to Britain, which has laws that would allow extradition.

 

But American lawyers for Mr. Polanski challenged that. In a statement, Chad Hummel and Douglas Dalton, who represent Mr. Polanski, said that Mr. Dalton “had been told by several prior deputy district attorneys that no efforts had been made to extradite Mr. Polanski  who has resided in Paris, owned a home in Switzerland for many years, and worked throughout Europe during that time.â€Â

 

Jeff Berg, Mr. Polanski’s agent, also noted that the director had been in Switzerland over the summer editing his latest film, “The Ghost†and had traveled openly in Italy, Germany and Austria.

 

The lawyers’ statement also said that during an Oct. 16, 2008, meeting. the deputy district attorney then assigned to the case, Richard Doyle, told Mr. Hummel that the prosecutors had never pursued extradition because the crime was not covered by a treaty with France.

 

This time, said Ms. Gibbons, who spoke by telephone on Sunday morning, prosecutors learned more than a week ago that Mr. Polanski was planning to accept the award in Zurich and asked that the United States government officially request the extradition.

 

Mr. Polanski has in recent months tried to move the longstanding criminal case out of Los Angeles, claiming that the court system there is biased against him. In January a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge turned down the request; Mr. Polanski’s lawyers filed an appeal in July that is pending. But as part of that action, a California court of appeal ordered the Superior Court to explain why Mr. Polanski needed to be present.

 

In a separate statement Mr. Dalton, Mr. Hummel and a third lawyer representing Mr. Polanski, Bart Dalton, said they had been unaware that any extradition attempt was being considered and had hoped that their pending appeal would resolve the case. “Separate counsel will be retained for those proceedings,†the statement said with regard to the extradition request.

 

Assuming Mr. Polanski does not waive his right to appeal the extradition, he can challenge the arrest warrant and any eventual extradition order, said Guido Balmer, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Justice Department, and appeal both issues in the Swiss federal penal court of justice. If he were to lose those appeals, he could then get a final hearing on both issues at the Federal Court of Justice.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/movies/28polanski.html

[Mentors]

Couldn't you just push him off of a mountain and save everyone a lot of trouble?

 

 

 

 

looks that it will be foggy tomorrow morning

[allistar]

Something/someone must have changed at the Los Angeles prosecutors office. Most of the lawyers there and judges involved in the case have retired. I assume that there could have been an outstanding warrant to arrest him any time he visited his Swiss home but the U.S. never asked for one. I'm surprised that one of the Swiss authorities hadn't tipped off Roman about the warrant.

[kamui]

Something/someone must have changed at the Los Angeles prosecutors office. Most of the lawyers there and judges involved in the case have retired. I assume that there could have been an outstanding warrant to arrest him any time he visited his Swiss home but the U.S. never asked for one. I'm surprised that one of the Swiss authorities hadn't tipped off Roman about the warrant.

 

I wonder, if this isn't an internal Swiss affair as well. It seems that high ranking Swiss and French officials (even the French ambassador ?) were present at the award ceremony, who have lost face now...

[Guest lazyphil]

how old was he when he raped the 13 year old?...44? 45?...clearly this dude is of pretty high interlect, but of little self control.....i wonder who else he's raped since. really it matters not if his victim wants to drop the case, its a matter of public safety garbage like this are behind bars!

 

rant over.

[unit731]

how old was he when he raped the 13 year old?...44? 45?...clearly this dude is of pretty high interlect, but of little self control.....i wonder who else he's raped since. really it matters not if his victim wants to drop the case, its a matter of public safety garbage like this are behind bars!

 

rant over.

 

 

Having sex with a 13 year old girl is rape.

 

But I wish people would read up on the circumstances in this case. What actually happened at the time and where.

 

Again, how did the police initially (at the time of incident) find out about this case?

 

The facts people.

 

 

[Faustian]

There were rumours of his involvement with Natasha Kinski when she was underage....rumours of course...she was 15...

 

As regards this story.

 

He was 44, she was 13....and looks like a child to me.

 

Btw, he anally raped her, as well as vaginally.

 

There's no defense for his actions, he even admitted to it. His was an act of paedophilia. That's not even up for a discussion as far as I'm concerned.

 

He ran, as most sex offenders surely would under such circumstances, but they usually aren't rich directors....he was allowed this respite from the law, mostly due to his fame and position. A normal person would've been convicted. It is also normal in the UK to retroactively prosecute sex offenders, sometimes decades later.

 

Why should this guy be an exception? There's no reason. He had a thing for young vulnerable actresses. He exploited his position. The age difference alone places him firmly in the paedophile category.

 

From Wikipedia...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski

 

Sex crime conviction

In 1977, Polanski, then aged 44, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now known as Samantha Geimer). It ultimately led to Polanski's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

 

According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot. According to Geimer in a 2003 interview, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot."

 

Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the Mulholland area home of actor Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." She recalled in a 2003 interview that she began to feel uncomfortable after he asked her to lie down on a bed, and how she attempted to resist. "I said, ‘No, no. I don’t want to go in there. No, I don’t want to do this. No!", and then I didn’t know what else to do,†she stated.

 

Geimer testified that Polanski performed various sexual acts on her after giving her a combination of champagne and quaaludes.

 

Charges and guilty plea

[color:red]Polanski was initially charged with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor.[/color] These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

 

Following the plea agreement, according to the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, the court ordered Polanski to report to a state prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but granted a stay of ninety days to allow him to complete his current project. Under the terms set by the court, he was permitted to travel abroad. Polanski returned to California and reported to Chino State Prison for the evaluation period, and was released after 42 days. On February 1, 1978, Polanski fled to London, where he maintained residency. A day later he traveled on to France, where he held citizenship, avoiding the risk of extradition to the U.S. by Britain. Consistent with its extradition treaty with the United States, France can refuse to extradite its own citizens. An extradition request later filed by U.S. officials was denied. The United States government can request that Polanski be prosecuted on the California charges by the French authorities.

 

Polanski has never returned to England, and later sold his home in absentia. The United States can still request the arrest and extradition of Polanski from other countries should he visit them, and Polanski has avoided visits to countries that are likely to extradite him (such as the UK) and mostly travels and works in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.

 

In a 2003 interview, Samantha Geimer said, "Straight up, what he did to me was wrong. But I wish he would return to America so the whole ordeal can be put to rest for both of us." Furthermore, "I'm sure if he could go back, he wouldn't do it again. He made a terrible mistake but he's paid for it".

 

In 2008, Geimer stated in an interview that she wishes Polanski would be forgiven, "I think he's sorry, I think he knows it was wrong. I don't think he's a danger to society. I don't think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever - besides me - and accused him of anything. It was 30 years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory ... (but) I can live with it."

 

[The_Munchmaster]

how old was he when he raped the 13 year old?...44? 45?...clearly this dude is of pretty high interlect, but of little self control.....i wonder who else he's raped since. really it matters not if his victim wants to drop the case, its a matter of public safety garbage like this are behind bars!

 

rant over.

You seem to be getting overly excited about this Phil. Surely there's been more excitable Thai topics for u to get involved in, but then u haven't really spent much time in Thailand in recent years, have u?

 

[Old Hippie]

At this age in the US this is considered rape.

 

I wonder how many guys out there when they (the guy) were 14, or 15, or 16, or in some places age 17, had sex with a youger gal. Are you considered a rapist?

 

This woman as asked to courts to not proceed with this case.

 

There was much more to this case. She and her mom were alleged 'groupies' or some such classification.

 

This was not the first time Roman had relations with this gal.

 

There was talk of 'movie' contracts floating around. Either by Roman or the gals or both.

 

Who did NOT get caught in all of this? Hint: whose house did much of this flolicking take place?

 

This Swiss arrest was not random. The US requesteed this. Why now? There is more to the 'arrest' story than is being told.

 

At what cost to taxpayers will all this be? And for what?

 

Let the old buggar go. Move on.

 

 

 

 

So if it had happened to you, or your child, we should just "let the bugger move on...?"