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Polanski's lawyers vow to fight Switzerland detention
2009-09-27
ZURICH (AFP) - Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski was in detention on Monday in Switzerland after his arrest over a 1977 childsex case in Los Angeles, as his attorneys vowed to fight his extradition to the United States. The controversial 76-year-old Polish-French director was arrested late Saturday, as he arrived to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival, for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said. US authorities have been pursuing the director of "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" for many years. The Swiss Justice Ministry said it was now waiting for a US extradition request. Polanski fled the United States in 1978 before sentencing on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He admitted the charge at the time and has never returned, even missing the Oscar award for "The Pianist" in 2003. "His wife and his children were very shocked by the arrest," his lawyer Herve Temine told France's Le Figaro daily. "We will be demanding that he be freed. Then we will fight the extradition," Le Figaro on Monday quoted him as saying. Termine said Polanski travelled the world over, adding: "to the best of my knowledge, the United States is the only country he abstains from visiting. "Humanly, it seems to me unbearable that more than 30 years after the incident a man of 76 who obviously poses no danger to society and whose artistic and personal reputation are clearly established, should spend a single day in prison. "Roman Polanski has never stopped travelling throughout the world despite the US arrest warrant," Temine said, adding that the director owned a chalet in Gstaad and "visits Switzerland very frequently." A Swiss justice ministry spokesman said Polanski was being held under a 2005 international alert issued by the US government. A final extradition decision could only be taken after the judicial process has been "finalised," the spokesman said, adding that appeals were possible against the arrest warrant as well as any extradition decision. Justice Minister Eveline Wildmer-Schlumpf said her country had to act on the US request and there was no political "pressure" involved. There was "no other solution" but to arrest Polanski, the minister said. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, confirmed that moves to detain the director were set in motion last week. "It wasn't a big secret that he was going to be in Zurich," Gibbons said. "They had announced he was going on the Internet." There had been two previous attempts to nab Polanski when he planned visits to countries that have extradition agreements with the US, but each time Polanski apparently learned of the plans and did not travel, Gibbons said. The Polish and French foreign ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Bernard Kouchner agreed to make a joint approach to US authorities, Poland's PAP news agency reported, including for a possible pardon from President Barack Obama. French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand condemned the arrest of the film-maker, who lives in Paris, and said he had discussed the matter with President Nicolas Sarkozy. Mitterrand told a press briefing that the arrest was "absolutely horrifying" and the case was "an old story which doesn't really make any sense." A petition signed by film-makers and actors including Costa Gavras, Wong Kar Wai, Monica Bellucci and Fanny Ardant voiced dismay at Polanski's detention. "It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by the police to apprehend him," the petition said. At the festival, posters with "Free Polanski" or "No extradition" were plastered in front of the cinema, with the planned retrospective in Polanski's honour going ahead albeit without the award ceremony. In May, a Los Angeles judge refused Polanski's bid to dismiss the underage sex case after he failed to appear in court. Polanski's legal team argued that the conviction should be annulled because the judge who heard the 1970s case had improperly colluded with prosecutors. The judge has since died. The woman named as the victim in the 1977 case has joined defence lawyers in urging the dismissal of the case. Samantha Geimer, now a 45-year-old mother of three, said that Polanski asked her mother if he could photograph her for a fashion magazine at the Hollywood Hills home of Jack Nicholson in March 1977. Geimer said that after plying her with champagne and drugs and taking nude pictures, Polanski had sex despite her resistance and requests to be taken home. Born in France of Polish parents, Polanski was raised in Poland and narrowly came through the Holocaust. His mother died in a concentration camp. He hit the headlines in 1969 when his second wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by members of Charles Manson's cult gang in Los Angeles. Polanski was out of the country at the time.
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