RT @mrjyn - http://bit.ly/G3Ckr - #Roman #Polanski #Arrested #YOUTUBE #VIDEO - ONLY VIDEO ON WWW WEB (BESIDES REUTERS) - AND THEIRS IS FILE FOOTAGE) - Updated 1:00 p.m. LA TIMES - In a statement, three Los Angeles attorneys representing Polanski indicated the arrest came as a surprise. The lawyers have been representing him in an ongoing attempt to have the case against Polanski dismissed on the grounds of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.
(SWISS REPORT [TRANSLATED] - Polanski Arrested Zurich 5 Hours Ago 27.09.2009 22:56 ZURICH time - Roman Polanski's arrest Saturday night, following an open procedure in the U.S. in 1977, never stops to generate anger and indignation. While American courts have said the planned arrest last week, Bern justified. The 7th demands the release of the filmmaker in a petition.
(cunt. after the break)
LA TIMES FEATURE (UPDATE)
Samantha Geimer on being the victim of Polanski and the media - Three decades after he fled the United States following his arrest for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski was taken into custody in Zurich this morning and faces extradition to Los Angeles. Polanski, the famed film director whose career continued to flourish even after fleeing for Europe, was arrested as he arrived in the Swiss city to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The Los Angeles County district attorneys office learned last week that Polanski had plans to travel to Zurich this weekend. Prosecutors sent a provisional arrest warrant to the U.S. Justice Department, which presented it to Swiss authorities. On at least two previous occasions, the district attorneys office has received reports that Polanski had travel arrangements to countries with extradition treaties with the U.S. and prepared paperwork for his arrest, Gibbons said. But in the end, he apparently found out about it and didnt go, she said. A source familiar with the investigation told The Times that the U.S. Marshals Service had come close to arresting Polanski half a dozen times or so over the past few decades -- though several of those opportunities presented themselves in the last two years.
Thomas Hession, head of the Marshals Service's Los Angeles office, would not comment on specifics of the case but said authorities moved quickly on each lead. "Any time information was developed, the L.A. County district attorney's office and the Marshals Service immediately acted on it."
Asked if prosecutors would ask that Polanski be sentenced to time behind bars if he were returned to the U.S., Gibbons said, Weve always maintained this is a matter between Polanski and the court. We initially recommended prison time for him, but I cant see into the future.
HISTORY OF WARRANT:
Polanski was arrested 31 years ago at a Beverly Hills hotel after a 13-year-old girl accused him of sexually assaulting her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house.
A 1978 arrest warrant, issued after he failed to appear at his sentencing on the statutory-rape conviction, is still in effect, and he would be taken into custody upon arrival on U.S. soil. The director of "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" has not returned to the U.S. since then but continues to work as a director, winning an Oscar for "The Pianist."
Polanskis stay in Switzerland could be brief if he opts to return to Los Angeles. If he agrees with an extradition, he could be sent to the U.S. in the next days, said Guido Ballmer, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police.
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(CUNT. - Suisse News)
Roman Polanski would be held in this prison of Kloten.
"There is no reason not to run an international arrest warrant valid," said the spokesman of the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), Guido Balmer. The director was arrested Saturday night on his arrival at Zurich airport and remanded in custody for extradition. U.S. authorities accused him of sexual acts with children, including one case in 1977 with a minor thirteen years in Los Angeles. They were issued in 1978 an arrest warrant against the filmmaker and actively looking around the world since 2005, the FOJ said in a statement.
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