Switzerland decides not to extradite Roman Polanski to U.S.
Polanski, 76, who won a best director Oscar for his portrait of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto of World War Two in 'The Pianist', was arrested on Sept. 26 upon arrival in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.
By Reuters Tags: Israel news Jewish worldSwitzerland will not send Roman Polanski back to the United States to face sentencing for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, freeing the Oscar-winning director from 10 months' arrest.
Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said on Monday she had decided against extradition because of potential technical faults in the U.S. request and also because Polanski had for years come to Switzerland in good faith.
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Roman Polanski |
"He is a free man since 11:30 today," she told a news conference in Switzerland's capital Berne. "He can go to France or to Poland, anywhere where he will not be arrested."
Polanski, 76, who won a best director Oscar for his portrait of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto of World War Two in "The Pianist", was arrested on Sept. 26 upon arrival in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.
Before Monday, he had been under house arrest since December 2009 at his mountain chalet in the chic ski town of Gstaad on bail of 4.5 million Swiss francs ($4.26 million), his movements constrained by an electronic foot bracelet.
"The electronic surveillance has now been switched off," Widmer-Schlumpf said.
It was unclear whether Polanski was still in Gstaad.
A person who identified herself as his assistant told Reuters over the chalet's intercom that Polanski had left. She declined to give further details.
Polanski's arrest had prompted an outcry in the global film industry and in political circles in France, where he has been a long-time resident, with directors from Woody Allen to Martin Scorsese and Jean-Luc Godard expressing support for the Polish-French artist.
The arrest also led to speculation, which Switzerland denied, that the move could have been linked to a U.S.-Swiss 2009 row over a tax evasion probe against Swiss bank UBS.
Widmer-Schlumpf said Washington could appeal the decision internationally but she did not expect that to happen.
"This is not about qualifying a crime. That is not our duty. This is not about deciding on guilt or innocence," she said.
Polanski's release follows months of uncertainty over whether he would have to face sentencing in the United States.
The Swiss decision not to extradite him had been all but certain after he suffered some setbacks in U.S. courts.
"It's an enormous satisfaction and a great relief after the pain suffered by Roman Polanski and his family," said Polanski's lawyer Herve Temime.
The director's release immediately drew scores of supportive comments from a French artists and high-ranking politicians.
"I am delighted with the decision," French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner said. "The great Franco-Polish director will from now on be able to rejoin his friends and family and work fully on his artistic projects."
"Switzerland has found the path to reason...What a beautiful lesson in democracy," said Bernard Henri-Levy, a philosopher and close friend of Polanski, who led calls for his freedom.
The Polish Foreign Ministry also welcomed the Swiss decision, while Polanski's U.S. agent and the U.S. Justice
Department in Washington declined to comment.
"Polanski is still a marked man...Even if he succeeds in fighting off the extradition applications there, that doesn't necessarily mean certain other countries may not be willing to accommodate U.S. prosecutors," said Robert Mintz, an ex-federal prosecutor and partner at U.S. law firm McCarter i English.
Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with the girl after a binge of champagne and drugs but fled the United States on the eve of his 1978 sentencing because he believed a judge might overrule his plea and put him in jail for 50 years.
Polanski has lived in Europe ever since and pursued his film career outside Hollywood, facing the prospect of arrest if he ever set foot back on U.S. soil.
Born to Polish-Jewish parents in 1933, his life was marked by a narrow escape from the Krakow ghetto and by the murder of his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, by followers of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969.
Polanski is also known for classics such as "Chinatown", which earned 11 Oscar nominations, and "Rosemary's Baby".
He completed his latest film "The Ghost", based on a Robert Harris best-seller, while under arrest in Switzerland.
"The time for calm has come," said French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand. "The difficult past, the rich personality, the universally admired works of Roman Polanski should all regain their standing."
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they are trying to punish Mr. Polanski? They should put to trial the ex governor of New York for sex with a 16 yrs old prostitute. USA should put on trial their own politicians in the first place.
It is amazing that his rape of a young girl meets such approval from those that applaud his violation of that young girl..This gives hm and others the right to RAPE. Should we not approve the right of his supporters to do the same???
No one should ever be extradited to countries like USA and Russia, countries with extraordinary long prison terms even for minor offenses and with 5% of population in prisons.
Not only the exterme long sentences are disgusting but the whole prison system is based on daily constant humiliation of the inmates, depriving them of their humanity and thus bringing thyem in a state of total despair, depression and suicidal feelings. Just watch any documentary about prisons in the US. Any truly civilized country should never extradite anybody to the US, whatever the crime is. In the US the medicine is worse than the disease.
Mr. Poliansky is innocent of any crime in this story. His plight typifies a talented man with humble beginings who is smeared and accused of who knows what for who knows what reasons. He is no more offensive to any gender than any man in the world and whatever statues were applied on him through twist of someone's legal maneuvres, to create precendent giving true offenders an escape hatch to not to face their crimes on one hand, and to deny him good name, as this world too often does to good people. Thank G-d he is free.
One allowed, another is not. One above the law, another is not. Since you favor Israel keeping it's nukes and denying Iran to have them, you have no moral authority whatsoever to judge this decision, 17.
Polanski committed one of the most heinous crimes a man can commit. He should be locked up for the rest of his life.... along with his lawyers.
Remind me to produce my old drawings if I'm ever arraigned for something similar. Presumably, that I had some degree of artistic talent will confer some degree of Polanski's immunity. You'd never guess it from the coverage, so let's review the legally established facts. Polanski drugged and forcibly sodomized a thirteen year old against her will. He then fled to avoid punishment. But you see, he makes critically-acclaimed movies...
to force a White House intern to perform .. in the Oval Office.
I agree that his crime was disgusting, and that he should have taken his punishment back in the 1970s, but in this case, the U.S refused to provide the Swiss with information they needed to fully justify the extradition (namely, the testimony of the prosecutor that Polanski's legal team accused of impropriety). Perhaps there is something in the prosecutor's old statements that support Polanski's claims and might prove embarrassing to the U.S judicial system if it were released. In any event, if the U.S wanted Polanski so badly, it should have given all of the relevant documents. Its failure to do so makes one wonder if the U.S really wants him back after all.
What if Switzerland wanted the US to send back to Switzerland a Swiss criminal and the US refused? I don't think they'd like it.
He's a convicted criminal in America. He fled to avoid punishment. The place where he committed the crime and was tried is germane. His nationality is IRRELEVANT.
It took them some time! Like in anything with the Swiss. But in the end they are OK. After all, do the Swiss have such horrible punishments for this crime like the US have? If not, how could they even begin to think of extraditing Polanski?
This disgusting abortion of justice is rendered more obscene by the hysterical crowing of such as Kouchner, Henri-Levy and Mtterand.