| U.S. formally asks Swiss to extradite Roman Polanski |
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23/10/2009 16:04 (28 Day 14:37 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- The United States has formally asked Switzerland to extradite fugitive film director Roman Polanski. The Academy Award-winning director fled sentencing in California on child sex charges in 1977.
The Justice Ministry said in a statement that Washington filed its formal extradition request late on October 22, according to AP. The 76-year-old filmmaker has been in Swiss custody since his arrest Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival.
The request has been forwarded to Zurich authorities, who will hold a hearing on an unspecified date to decide whether Polanski should be sent back to Los Angeles, the same source reported. If extradition is approved, Polanski may appeal the decision to Switzerland's top criminal court and, theoretically, to the Federal Supreme Court.
“There is a certain likelihood that Switzerland will extradite Polanski,” said Felix Bommer, a professor of criminal and international law at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland, Bloomberg informs. Assuming that sexual crimes aren’t covered by a statute of limitations, “Switzerland would have to comply with the provisions of the treaty and extradite Polanski.”
The same source wrote that Polanski’s lawyers can oppose the request in Zurich and appeal any decision to two Swiss courts, according to the statement. One of Polanski’s lawyers in Paris, Herve Temime, declined to comment.
Earlier this week, a Swiss court refused a request to release Polanski on bail pending an extradition battle, saying that he posed a high flight risk, CNN reported. He was given 10 days to appeal the decision. Polanski pleaded guilty in August 1977 to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl five months earlier. He was 43 at the time. Los Angeles, California, prosecutors dropped other charges in exchange for his guilty plea.
But Polanski fled the country before he was sentenced, after he learned the judge might not go along with the short jail term he expected to get from the plea agreement, according to the same source. Polanski remained free -- mostly living in France -- before he was arrested in Switzerland on a 31-year-old arrest warrant. Los Angeles authorities said they sought his arrest when they learned he would be traveling to Switzerland for a film festival last month.
The maximum sentence Polanski can receive in California is two years, the Justice Ministry said, AP wrote. "In the American case, he declared himself guilty of having sexual relations with a minor," spokesman Folco Galli told Europe-1 radio. "According to American law currently in force, the maximum penalty for the crime in question is two years in prison."
Galli said the sentence couldn't be longer because Polanski could only be punished for the crime that is the basis of his extradition, according to the same source. He didn't say specifically whether Polanski was being pursued for fleeing justice in 1978, and Los Angeles authorities couldn't immediately be reached for verification. A copy of the U.S. extradition request wasn't made public.
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