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Swiss Reject U.S. Request to Extradite Polanski

12 July 2010 20:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Switzerland will not extradite the film director Roman Polanski to the United States to face charges of unlawful sex with a minor because of a possible fault in the American application for his extradition, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference on Monday, APA reports quoting â€œThe New York Timesâ€.
â€œHeâ€™s a free man,â€ she said.
Mr. Polanski was arrested on an international warrant issued by the United States on charges dating from 1977. The director fled on the eve of sentencing in California because of fear that the presiding intended to renege what his defense lawyers said was a deal to avoid a prison sentence.
Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf said the Swiss government had rejected the extradition request in part because American authorities declined to provide confidential testimony from a January 2010 hearing on Mr. Polanskiâ€™s original sentencing agreement.
Swiss officials said records from that hearing would have established whether the judge who tried the case in 1977 had assured Mr. Polanski that time he spent in a psychiatric unit would constitute the whole of the period of imprisonment he would serve.
â€œIf this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the U.S. extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation,â€ the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement.
Swiss authorities jailed Mr. Polanski, the Polish-born filmmaker, in Zurich in September 2009 in response to the American warrant but in December allowed him to move to his chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad under house arrest on bail of $4.5 million pending a decision on his extradition. The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said he was â€œdelightedâ€ and deeply relieved by the Swiss ruling.
Georges Kiejman, one of Mr. Polanskiâ€™s lawyers, said Mondayâ€™s decision was a vindication of sorts, and a step toward resolving what he called an â€œAmerican misunderstandingâ€ of Mr. Polanskiâ€™s case. He said Mr. Polanski â€œdid not flee the United States, as is often said,â€ and said Mr. Polanskiâ€™s departure had never been a challenge to American prosecutors.
â€œIâ€™m obviously very happy for Roman,â€ said Mr. Kiejman said in a telephone interview. â€œI believe there is much too much pride in the attitude of the American authorities.â€
Mr. Kiejman said he hopes Mr. Polanski would one day be able to return freely to the United States.
â€œIntellectually and artistically, itâ€™s one of his adoptive homelands,â€ he said.
A spokeswoman for the United States Justice Department declined to comment.