Switzerland betrayed by Roman Polanski
The prosecution sent a provisional arrest warrant for the U.S. Justice Department submitted to the Swiss authoritiesUPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that prosecutors planned to arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland after learning that he would accept an award at Zurich Film Festival.
News outlets report that Roman Polanski was arrested by police in Switzerland today in a year-old international order-31 on arrival at Zurich airport to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Zurich Film Festival. (The organization expressed “great dismay and shock.”) The Federal Justice Department was holding the year-old Oscar-winning director of 76 in custody while preparations were made to the possibility of extradition to Los Angeles to face the arrest warrant after his conviction in 1978 of drugging and having unlawful sexual intercourse with one year of age, under 13 at the home of Jack Nicholson. Facing a prison sentence, Polanski fled the United States just before his sentencing. Also cited was a documentary called “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” show what Polanski’s lawyers have said it was “a pattern of misconduct and irregular communications between the authorities in Los Angeles on the case. In Paris, where Polanski fled and now lives, the French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand, said in a statement it was “astonished” by the arrestBut at the time that followed, the girl, Samantha Geimer, has publicly forgiven, and backed by Hollywood, the lawyers have tried for years to have the case dismissed as recently as last year, alleging among other things , which was psychologically devastated after his wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family.