Monday, July 12, 2010

Swiss Justice Head: "Polanski Is a Free Man;" U. S. Would Not Provide Swiss with Vital Info

The New York Times website reports today (July 12, 2010) that Switzerland will not extradite Polish-born 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 Evcline Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference today. "He's a free man," she said.

Polanski was arrested on an international warrant issued by the U.S. on charges dating from 1977, when he was charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The film director fled to France on the eve of sentencing in California to avoid a prison sentence.

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 Polanski's original sentence agreement.

Swiss authorities jailed Polanski 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.

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