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Free Roman Polanski now, demand France and Poland | Film | guardian.co.uk
Free Roman Polanski now, demand France and Poland | Film | guardian.co.ukFree Roman Polanski now, demand France and Poland
Diplomatic war brewing as politicians and filmmakers lobby for release of Oscar-winning director after arrest on 1978 US warrant
A diplomatic war was brewing today over the arrest of the filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was detained in Switzerland on a decades-old warrant relating to the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
France and Poland urged Switzerland to free the 76-year-old director on bail and said they would be lobbying the US government all the way up to the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
Frédéric Mitterrand, the French culture minister, said the arrest was proof of the "frightening" side of America.
"In the same way as there is a generous America which we love, there is also a certain kind of America which is frightening, and it is this America which has now shown us its face," he said.
Reports this afternoon said the director had refused to voluntarily go to the US to face charges, raising the prospect of a long and drawn-out legal saga.
Despite being held in Swiss custody for two nights, Polanski remains "totally combative and determined to defend himself", one of his French lawyers said.
Hervé Temime told France Info radio a request for bail would be made today and that he would be "surprised and disappointed" if permission was not granted.
"We are going to start by requesting he be let out of detention, which should in theory happen today," said Temime. "There is no reason ... to keep Roman Polanski in prison.
"I hope we can very quickly bring to an end this situation which seems to me to be totally grotesque."
Polanski is in good spirits, his agent said today. "His voice is strong ... he's very anxious to get this resolved and go home," Jeff Berg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Berg said the film director's arrest on a 1978 US warrant as he arrived in Switzerland from France was a surprise because he has had a house in the country for more than a decade.
"It is surprising because Roman, for the last 12, 15 years, has lived in Switzerland. He has a home; he travels there; he works there," he said.
"His presence there is well-known, as it is through much of Europe, so this came kind of as a shock, given the fact that he was invited to Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award."
Polanski, the director of Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby, had travelled to Switzerland to accept an award at the Zurich film festival. The event's organisers expressed "great consternation and shock" at his detention.
He has hired the Swiss lawyer Lorenz Erni, of the Eschmann & Erni firm, to fight any extradition charges.
The Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda and other Polish filmmakers have appealed to the US, Swiss and Polish authorities for the Paris-born Polanski to be freed.
Jacek Bromski, head of the Polish Filmmakers Association, said Polanski had spent all of August at his house in the German-speaking village of Gstaad, south-west Switzerland, working on his latest movie, The Ghost.
"Nothing happened" to him during that time, Bromski said, adding that in the eyes of the public, Polanski has already "atoned for the sins of his young years".
Polanski has strong links with Poland, having moved to the country with his Jewish family as a child shortly before the second world war.
His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp but he avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the west.
The director has held French citizenship for many years and is married to the French singer and actor Emmanuelle Seigner.
He has spent much of his life in France since fleeing the US in 1978 but regularly visits countries that do not have extradition treaties with the US.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to see the director reunited swiftly with his family, Mitterrand said.
Polanski pleaded guilty to the assault in 1977 but jumped bail and fled the US the following year to avoid a lengthy prison sentence.
He has spent more than three decades in exile in Paris, refusing to return to the US even when he won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2003.
Zurich police said he had been detained in the city on Saturday night at the request of the US justice department and was in custody awaiting extradition.
"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," Guido Balmer, of the Swiss justice ministry, said. "That's why he was taken into custody."
Polanski was 44 and already a twice Oscar-nominated director when he had sex with Samantha Gailey, a 13-year-old model he had hired for a photoshoot, at Jack Nicholson's home in Los Angeles in 1977.
He claimed the sex was consensual, saying the girl was "not unresponsive", but Gailey said he drugged her with painkillers and champagne before carrying out a "very scary" assault.
In recent months, Polanski's lawyers have been seeking, through the US courts, to have the rape charges against him dropped after saying new evidence had emerged in a documentary to show he was the victim of "judicial misconduct" at his original trial.
The documentary showed a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney admitting discussing the case with the trial judge while it was ongoing.
How did the law catch up with Roman Polanski? | Film | The Guardian
How did the law catch up with Roman Polanski? | Film | The GuardianHow did the law catch up with Roman Polanski?
The film-maker's libel action and a very public trip to Switzerland may have been his downfall
Film director Roman Polanski leaving court in October 1977. Photograph: Nick Ut/AP
For a fugitive from US justice, Roman Polanski seems not to have given as much thought as he might have done to the consequences of travelling outside his adopted home, France. There, his French citizenship ensures him protection – France does not allow its own citizens to be extradited to the US.
Presumably, though, he felt safe going to Switzerland, as he has long had a chalet in the luxury ski resort of Gstaad and, according to one of his lawyers, travelled widely in continental Europe.
Los Angeles county authorities have had a warrant out for Polanski's arrest since he fled the US in 1978 while awaiting sentencing after admitting having sex with a 13-year-old girl. But they have only sought his arrest around the world since 2005, when they issued an international arrest warrant.
Their renewed interest may have been sparked off by a well-publicised libel action he brought that year in the high court in London against Vanity Fair, over an article about his earlier private life. He testified by video link for fear of being arrested if he set foot in Britain, with its easy extradition arrangements with the US.
Since then, the LA county district attorney's office has instigated moves to have him arrested at least twice, after learning that he was preparing to travel to a country with an extradition treaty with the US, but in the end he decided not to travel. This time the authorities got lucky, spotting that he was due to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival. Unlike his private holidays in Switzerland, this trip was publicised, ensuring plenty of warning to make sure a valid arrest request was in place.
The district attorney's office sent a provisional arrest warrant to the US Justice Department, which presented it to the Swiss authorities last week. Polanski was arrested at Zurich airport and taken into "provisional custody" in a Zurich jail.
Previous cases indicate that challenging his extradition is likely to take many months. Suspects usually remain in custody throughout the process, although bail is not ruled out. The US state department has 60 days to file a request for Polanski's transfer to LA. The request first goes to the Swiss ministry of justice and appeals are possible both against the arrest warrant and against any decision to extradite. Appeals would go to the Swiss federal penal court of justice, and any rulings there can be appealed further to the federal court of justice.
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