After his recent arrest in Zurich, Switzerland, stemming from a 31 year old unlawful sex case that lead to his flight from the U.S., filmmaker Roman Polanski is challenging Swiss authorities’ bid to extradite him back to the United States.
“[Mr.Polanski] is in a fighting mood,” his French lawyer, Herve Temime, said in a statement yesterday, part of which was published by Variety late yesterday claiming the Swiss detention is illegitimate. “We have begun by requesting his release. After that, his defense team will demonstrate the illegal nature of the extradition request he is facing. There is no legal reason based on the facts or the most basic principles of justice to keep Roman Polanski in prison for even a single day.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s up to the federal Swiss court to decide whether or not to grant bail, but a spokesman said bail is usually only “granted exceptionally.”
Meanwhile, Polanski’s detention has evidently delayed his 2010 political thriller, “The Ghost,” starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams and others, which chronicles a writer who is selected to ghost-write the memoirs of a British Prime Minister (a thinly-veiled Tony Blair type) but uncovers some dark secrets along the way. Apparently the film is still in the post-production stage and needs further editing, music and sound work and will now be on hold until the legal matter is settled.
Perhaps illustrating cultural differences about forgiveness and the vast cultural views on this case, Europeans have shown outrage at the filmmaker’s arrest on his way to Zurich film festival tribute in his name. Former French president Francois Mitterand has come to the filmmakers defense asking was he “thrown to the lions because of ancient history?” Polanski has resided in France ever since his 1978 flight from the U.S. and he retains Polish and French dual citizenship. Several Foreign minsters, including those of Poland and France, have written U.S. Minister of Culture Hilary Clinton in hopes of dissuading the U.S. from pushing for extradition.
According to Variety, the U.S. now has up to 60 days to formalize an expatriation request following his arrest.
Polanski’s Wikipedia page has been the subject of recent vandalism, and the page surprising does not appear to have been subsequently locked (though any libelous and aspersive comments seem to have been since removed; actually this report says the page is locked).
Morally, Polanski’s crimes against a 13-year-old girl are indefensible, but at this point the matter is a legal one and an entire different ball of wax and this is where it all gets sticky and very complex. What really is at the heart of the matter appears not to be the unlawful sex case (which Polanski already served a 42-day psychiatric evaluation as per the judges orders), but the flight from the U.S. which has made the director a fugitive from the U.S. ever since.
Much of this case coming back into the public light occurred last year. After watching the documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” Polanski’s attorney Douglas Dalton, said former prosecutor David Wells’ self-described contacts with the judge in the film appeared to violate California law and legal ethics. In July 2008, Dalton asked the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to review the Marina Zenovich-directed doc in which the former deputy district attorney (Wells) essentially claimed to have coached the now-deceased judge in the case (though Wells vehemently denied this).
Many U.S. legal experts believe the recent arrest could lead to a resolution that will allow him to once again travel freely. ”I think he will finally get his day in court,” criminal defense attorney Steve Cron told the New York Times, ”and there’s a good chance his case will be dismissed or the sentence will be commuted to time served.”
Others feels his refusal to surrender himself earlier this year at the behest of the L.A. prosecutors who seemed very willing to review his case could complicate matters. ”The big issue is whether it would have been better for him to negotiate a surrender when he had the chance,” Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson told the Times. ”Now it has become an international incident and the district attorney may be under pressure not to negotiate a sweetheart deal. They’ve gone to all this trouble of getting Switzerland involved. It could make it harder on him.”