Zurich, Switzerland—The Associated Press has reported that Swiss authorities have arrested fugitive film director, and Holocaust survivor, Roman Polanski. The arrest was in connection with a warrant issued after Los Angeles authorities reneged on a plea agreement they entered into with Polanski, 76 on charges related to sexual activity with a willing 13 year old girl in 1977.
Recently in Los Angeles, lawyers for Polanski have taken up this matter asking that the warrant be quashed and any orders to punish Polanski outside the original plea agreement be vacated. So far the courts have ruled that in order for Polanski’s request to even be considered he must surrender to the court. That ruling is currently under appeal but may be mute if Polanski is returned to L.A.
Polanski had traveled to Zurich for a film festival where he was to receive an award. Instead Polanski was arrested.
Polanski will be able to contest his extradition before a Swiss court. We will have to wait and see what happens there.
For more information my previous stories can be found here.
22 comments:
How about California giving holocaust survivor Roman Polanski some slack after all I think his mom died in an SS camp, and more horror when his wife Sharon Tate who was expecting his baby died via Charles Manson with blood smeered all over the carpet that the landlord later made Polanski pay for.
Hasn't this man suffered enough? What is the world upset because he made a film called Rosemary's Baby and is an accomplished artist.
In addition Roman Polanski's statutory rape victim wants charges against him dropped after 40 years but so far to no avail.
And in addition there was judicial corruption in the plea agreement over in the County of Los Angeles Santa Monica Courthouse. That is what was so frightening and that is why he ran.
But extenuating circumstances & a little compassion is not something that the Justice system here understands very often and cold hearted spite and control seems to be the name of the game. So much for a neutral Switzerland. Must be a thing of the past.
The world and the people in it are not perfect i- nonetheless in this case it is time for a California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger to issue a pardon to Roman Polanski while he is still alive for humanitarian reasons.
The victim forgave him - why won't California after 40 years. Roman Polanski served enough time in Hitler's germany, and through the death of his wife and child by California's Charles Manson cult.
The arrest of film Director Roman Polanski has risen to the level of an international incident after Swiss police nabbed him as he was entering the country to be honored at film festival.
Aside from the sex crime with a willing underage girl and his running apparently in the face of court or prosecutorial misconduct where a plea bargain was not upheld - this case raises questions about just how far prosecutors should go 31 years after the fact - to press a case of underage sex, in which even the victim says the charges should be dropped.
Polanski, now 76, has resided in France since his 1977 arrest on statutory rape charges for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "stunned" to hear about Polanski's apprehension by Swiss police and says he “profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life, which has bubbled with spirit and creativity,"
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also taken a personal interest in the case and expressed hoped the matter could be resolved and Polanski could go free.
Whether President Barack Obama will get involved remains to be seen. But the president has the power to pardon Polanski.
Obama does not have the power to Pardon Polanski. Polanski has never been charged with a federal crime. The best Obama can do is use influence on state officials or the Swiss government. I don't think Obama would lift a finger for a Jew. That would offend his Muslim friends.
Perhaps French President Nicolas Sarkozy who has also taken a personal interest in the case and expressed hoped the matter could be resolved and wished that Roman Polanski could go free might be able to give Obama a friendly Presidential nudge for his french citizen Roman Polanski who is in jeopardy...
So that Roman Polanski can get the Happy Hollywood ending and release he so deserves after all these years.
But I might well be dreaming - we will see.
UPDATE - THE WORLD IS OUTRAGED
Government ministers, movie directors, writers and intellectuals have expressed shock and outrage after the detention of Oscar winning director Roman Polanski in Switzerland on three-decade-old child sex charges.
France and Poland are to ask the United States to drop the charges and consider a presidential pardon over the case, Poland's PAP news agency said on Sunday, though Polanski has already acknowledged he had sex with the 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977.
The Polish and French foreign ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Bernard Kouchner discussed the arrest of the French-Polish national by telephone and agreed to make a joint approach to the US authorities, PAP reported.
They will ask US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton "to ask Switzerland to release Roman Polanski, detained pending extradition, and for her to envisage the possibility of a pardon from President Barack Obama", PAP quoted Sikorski as saying.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told a press briefing that the arrest is "absolutely horrifying" and the case is "an old story which doesn't really make any sense."
"We know the conditions that this happened in, and while there is a generous America that we like, there is also a side of America which scares and that side has just showed us its face," he told reporters.
Questioned about the case in Warsaw, Poland's President Lech Kaczynski said he's "surprised" and that he wants to speak with US officials about the case, but added that they are "devilishly difficult" to deal with.
Polish film directors, led by Andrzej Wajda, an honourary Oscar winner, sent a letter to the Polish government calling for official help for Polanski, saying he faces a "judicial lynching".
Irina Bokova, incoming head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), called the arrest "shocking" in an interview with French television.
The Swiss film screenwriters and directors association, the ASSR, called the arrest "a judicial scandal which will tarnish Switzerland's reputation around the world".
Polanski has been working on a film version of The Ghost, a political thriller by British writer Robert Harris, and Harris told Sky News television he's amazed by events.
"The warrant is 31-years-old and Roman Polanski has a house in Switzerland. I have worked with him there two or three times in the last year or so.
"He has travelled freely throughout Europe and in Switzerland - filming has been based in Germany. He has just come back from a holiday in Greece.
"I'm amazed this should happen now, and I cannot begin to fathom what reason lies behind it."
Thee French don't have a problem with Roman Polanksi..
Maybe that is because the French don't need to make money like the County of Los Angeles does in prosecuting Polanski 31 years later for a crime that the victim has forgiven him for - since Polanski paid her a settlement.
Roman Polanski, is not a sexual predator in the eyes of the French media, which tend to describe him as the victim of a money-grabbing American mother and a publicity-hungry Californian judge.
The woman in question was Susan Gailey, whose daughter, Samantha, was at the centre of the case that led to Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland.
The French view is that Mrs Gailey pushed the 13-year-old — now known as Samantha Geimer — into Polanski’s arms in the hope of a movie career.
For the generation of French commentators who grew up the 1960s, Polanski was guilty only of pushing back the boundaries of sexual liberation.
The other figure in a tale that highlights the Franco-American gulf is Laurence J. Rittenband, the judge in charge of the case, who died in 1993. He is accused in France of reneging on his word over a plea bargain, making a series of procedural errors and using Polanski’s name to earn himself celebrity.
For France, there has never been any question of extraditing Polanski to the United States because he holds a French passport. Nor has his reputation been tarnished in Paris by the events of 1977. Instead, he is seen as a hero unjustly persecuted by America’s prosecutors and media.
In regards to Roman Polanski alleging Judicial Misconduct and/or prosecutorial misconduct at Santa Monica Courthouse vis a vis the plea bargain arrangement that had been made which he said was about to be breached - it is true that Judicial Misconduct has occured at Santa Monica Courthouse constantly in different ways-throughout the decades.
For instance Francis Farmer the actress in the 1940's after being in Santa Monica Courthouse for a traffic offense - and who was not represented by a lawyer - was pyschiatrically evaluated and later institutionalized and apparently given a partial lobotomy. I am reminded of "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest." starring Roman Polanski's friend Jack Nicholson.
If we are not aware of some of sordid history at Santa Monica County of Los Angeles Courthouse then history is doomed to repeat itself.
Arresting Roman Polanski now and after 31 years is not so much about the crime of sexual assault the County of Los Angeles obviously doesn't care about the victim - this is more about Los Angeles County's need to control.
When it suits their needs and in other cases - the County of Los Angeles & their Santa Monica Judges and their law enforcement use Santa Monica Courthouse Judges, African American police and sheriffs to cover up sexual assault on white women perpetrated by professional white men - they even assault and batter white women using undocumented sheriffs for reporting the crime of sexual molestation and police cover up of it
The County of Los Angeles action is hypocritical since the County of Los Angeles does not care about women who have been sexually assaulted, and in certain cases act in concert to oppress them.
The extradition of Roman Polanski which comes late - after 31 years is more about Los Angeles County's need for power and control - than anything else,
I agree with some of your video. However he wasn’t a “young man” when he committed this vial act. He was 44 years OLD [1.]
I am not a fan of sports nor TV celebrities. However based on the judges’ gross misconduct, I hope his charges and/or plea are dismissed. If not a successful ‘motion to withdraw his plea’... granted. Then let a jury decide.
According to KFI radio, the victims received her restitution, and does not want to testify.
However it seems the DA’s office is hurting for news and attention right now (a motive.)
If the DA proceeds, I assure you the DA’s office will attack, intimidate and manipulate her into a new statement and testimony. If she refuses they will maliciously publically discredit her.
She’ll be a victim all over again.
But thats just my opinion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski
This man admits that he was 44, when he intoxicated and then had sex with a 13 year old.
That's a horrific crime.
But even worse, he ran like a coward and became a traitor to America as he cowardly hid in a Country that now disrespects our soldiers forgetting what we did for them on D day.
If the charges are dropped, it should only be because of the judicial misconduct.
Regardless I don't care how many awards this cowards won.
We can not allow Hollyweird to fog our vision.
Every day In America innocent people plead guilty to crimes for the simple reason the deal and punishment outweighs the risk of a potential wrongful conviction.
I can’t say what happened between the two so long ago since I was not in that hot tub. That is really not that important because a plea deal was reached that satisfied everyone but the star struck judge who signaled he was going to break the agreement. That kind of outrage would make anyone mistrust the system and run like Hell.
What we have not taken into account is the cultural difference in that in European countries 13 years-old is a valid age of consent. In America most states take a dim view of what is common in most of the world. Polanski simply followed the example provided during his formative years.
The plea agreement should have been honored and this think would have been a bad memory decades ago.
I don't care if your a Mexican or a Pollock. You come to my Country, you obey our laws. And stay the hell away from our kids.
Yes Paul many innocent men do plea down to lesser charges. But that's because their ignorant or don't have the money.
This felon is brilliant and had too much $$$ to lose.
Plus he plead guilty to a child molestation rather then the actual rape.
Then rather than pleading no contest he pays the victim money.
He's just another leftist from Hollywood that should flee America
To Heck with this Holier than Thou attitude. What a crock...
Anonymous said...
I don't care if your a Mexican or a Pollock. You come to my Country, you obey our laws. And stay the hell away from our kids.
In Anonymous's Country - a mother of an underage kid should know better to leave her cute female kid alone at Jack Nicholson's Easy Rider house with an exotic film director who makes films like Rosemary's Baby and China Town
Maybe the mum wanted the kid to star in a movie and was just a little dumb about supervising the meeting, or perhaps not – but regardless in the end the bottom line was money.
Moral of the tale don't leave your underage attractive daughter unsupervised with a famous wealthy film director unless you are looking for a way to get a handout one way or another.
The mother played a part in this also - by not supervising the meeting.
Based on even more facts. The pervert needs to own up to and accept his own plea.
No more www.paganslaw.com
Polanski has already been punished. He was locked away for 42 days of Frances Farmer styled psychiatric care!!! You can see how much it did for him, because after that he needed to run.
I am wondering if there is a link between the discrimination against 30's actress Francis Farmer and Roman Polanski in that their perspectives are not popular with some people - since Francis Farmer said god was dead, and since Polanski made a films about the devil, and there were devilish acts against his family on more than one occasion.
Is there a need by some - to make him guilty by association ?
As far as the crime California are accusing him of - you would need to lock up most of Europe for the type of crime Polanski committed as it happens all the time in France, Amsterdam, Germany and elsewhere.
Of course that many males rape young girls or women does not make it right, I am not condoning it, but it does makes Roman Polanski being singled out 30 years later by a different culture and stoned with all this verbal abuse as though he is the only male on the planet that does this - disgusting and really frightening - and it is not as though Roman Polanski murdered anyone
This country forgives certain people like Ted Kennedy for a far worse problem of killing a girl while he was driving, why won't this county forgive Roman Polanski, whose wife and child were murdered here, and when the Judge played around with the plea bargain and frightened the man who was predisposed to run because of his childhood running from the Nazis. It was a knee jerk reaction on his part to being treated unjustly
Why does California want to put the artists out of business with these horrendous Media lawsuits, and California has already driven film production away. And look at what Michael Jackson had to go through with these public legal circuses. And look where he is now.
if it was not for the victim's mother who did not supervise her daughter - none of this would have happened, The mother is culpable for her lack of supervision and in failing in this duty she had to call the police 31 years ago.
Have some compassion California - His victim has compassion and doesn't want any part of this.
Give the man a break - the one that he did not get as a child. He has served his 42 days. Let him go.
Here is Sarkozy's nudge.
Yesterday on 15th Oct 2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the US warrant issued for Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski on a 32-year-old sex charge was "not a good administration of justice".
Sarkozy said, "I understand that people are shocked by the gravity of the accusations against Roman Polanski,"
"But I add that it is not a good administration of justice to do this 32 years after the facts when the person concerned is today 76 years old."
Roman Polanski's supporters are questioning the timing of Roman Polanski's arrest because it seems strange the arrest occurred on Sept 26th 2009- two days after Roman Polanski's American wife's murderer died.
Susan Atkins was a California teenage girl who murdered Roman Polanski's American wife Sharon Tate and his unborn child in 1969 in California.
In the summer of 1969, Susan Atkins stabbed Roman Polanksi's wife, pregnant actress Sharon Tate a gruesome 16 times. There was no compassion, no mercy.
Polanski was in Europe filming otherwise he certainly might have been one of the victims.
Susan Atkins and the Manson "family's" murders were horrific.
After killing Polanski's wife Sharon Tate, prosecutors said Susan Atkins tasted the actress' blood and used it to scrawl “PIG” on her and Roman Polanski's front door. The whole world read about this and was horrified.
Is it possible that the Los Angeles Prosecutors waited until Susan Atkins (the murderer of Roman Polanski's American wife and unborn child ) was dead before actively pursuing Roman Polanski?
Or is the fact that she died two days before Polanski was arrested in Switzerland coincidental?
If Los Angeles had managed to arrest Polanski when his wife's and unborn child's murderer was still alive, then there would have been far more uproar in arresting Roman Polanski for his later alleged faux pas with an underage girl, than there is now.
With the murderer of Polanski's American wife and child out of the way, and no longer VISIBLE - it is as though the Los Angeles authorities can ignore this horrendous event against Roman Polanski's American family or that this event did not severely hurt and traumatize Roman Polanski in 1969 and since that time.
Compassion is not something that the Los Angeles Authorities have extended in this case so far.
It is not compassion to be given because he is a film maker. It is compassion because of what he has lived through in his life, and yet still managed to carry on and be successful.
When are they going to give this 76 year old European man, who is not a repeat offender, a married man with kids of his own, some peace?
A story is in the press that it was not Susan Atkin's death nor the Los Angeles prosecutors that sparked a witch hunt for Roman Polanksi after 31 years.
Apparently it was the Swiss authorities who set in motion the arrest of Roman Polanski.
Apparently the Swiss Federal Office of Justice sent an urgent fax to the US Office of International Affairs on Sept 22, stating that Polanski was expected at a film festival in Zurich.
It asked if the US would be submitting a request for the arrest of the Oscar-winning director who was the subject of an international law enforcement "Red Notice."
After receiving the tip US federal officials alerted the Los Angeles district attorney's office, which immediately began drafting an arrest warrant.
It had previously been assumed that the bullish Los Angeles district attorney Steve Cooley had initiated moves to arrest Polanski, and that his office had learned through the internet that the director would be appearing at the Zurich film festival.
The disclosure of the real sequence of events raises the question of why Switzerland decided to alert the US authorities when it did.
Polanski had been a frequent visitor to Switzerland in the past, and has a home there, yet US authorities had never been alerted before.
That will lead to increased speculation about a link between Polanski's arrest and Switzerland's efforts to patch up strained relations with the US over tax evasion and banking secrecy.
But if this is true - this is pretty crappy of the Swiss to sell an old man who has already been victimized several times over by California Injustice
UBS, the Swiss bank, has already agreed to pay $780m and supply the names of some US clients for whom it helped hide investments from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over a seven-year period.
The documents showing that Polanski's arrest originated with Swiss authorities were obtained by the Associated Press under a public records request.
An email sent from the US Office of International Affairs to the Los Angeles district attorney's office on Sept 25, two days after the original fax, showed US officials were confident Polanski would not be released if arrested in Switzerland.
It said: "Generally, Switzerland does not release fugitives sought for extradition.
"The default in Switzerland is that a fugitive will be detained until he is either extradited or determined by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to be non-extraditable."
A warrant having been assembled Polanksi was then arrested the following day as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award.
I find it truly amazingl that Susan Atkins the California girl and teenage murderer of Polanski's wife and child died in prison 2 days after the first fax was sent by the Swiss. And then two days later Polanski was arrested.
Everything has worked out so neat and tidy for the Los Angeles prosecutors 32 years later.
The US has until Nov 25 to file a formal extradition request for the sacrificial lamb.
This whole thing is truly sickening.
Roman Polanski was set up in California by Samantha’s mother permitting her underage sexually active & attractive daughter to model without her supervision at two photo shoots with Roman Polanski.
There is a stunning nude photograph of Roman with his wife Sharon Tate at Huffington Post taken 10 years earlier, which gives a clear indication of what might happen to an attractive female, at a photo session with Roman Polanski.
Link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/naked-roman-polanski-shar_n_369963.html
Parental Alert… Hello? What was Samantha’s mother thinking when she let her underage daughter Samantha go to a photo shoot alone with Roman Polanski? Is anybody surprised what happened?
Also just because Samantha was underage does not mean that she was entirely innocent.
Yes Samantha IN THE EYES OF THE LAW was too young to consent to sex.
BUT NONETHELESS SAMANTHA HAD HAD SEX before she ever met Polanski.
Roman Polanski was at a disadvantage with Samantha as Samantha could tempt him but he was not supposed to be tempted.
California has blamed Roman Polanski for the entire situation arising and are ignoring that Samantha’s mother allowed her underage daughter to go unsupervised to two photo shoots with a man 30 years her senior.
The mother’s lack of protection for her attractive underage daughter is NOT Roman Polanski’s fault. It is a bit like putting your daughter in front of a train and then blaming the train for running into your daughter.
Samantha Geimer’s mother’s failure to take protective measures towards her daughter also suggests more than turning a blind eye, it suggests her complicity. All of this under the guise of helping her daughter’s career?
Also the underage girl, Samantha surely contributed to her own demise, by purposely concealing her topless modeling activities from her mother occurring at the first photo shoot, so as to preserve her opportunity to model with Polanski at the second photo shoot without her mother’s interference.
If Samantha had been supervised and if Samantha had not wanted to be a star – none of this would have happened.
As stated before Samantha had already had sex before she ever met Roman Polanski.
Then when they did meet it seems that Samantha was a willing participant ready to sell her soul to the devil for a part in Polanski’s next movie, just as the actor in Rosemary’s Baby sold his soul to the devil to be in a movie, and just as a Judge is willing to sell his soul to the devil by covering up police misconduct, assault and battery of a sexual assault victim in his courtroom, to guarantee his promotion to Justice in California.
Samantha had the opportunity to escape Polanski’s advances since he was not holding a gun to her head,and was either attracted to Polanski, dependent, or may have stayed for the career opportunity of her dreams.
Samantha knew very well how to resist when it suited her neeeds, since she resisted her mother by concealing that she was photographed half naked at the first photo shoot with Roman Polanski.
I believe Roman Polanski was set up by Samantha’s mother and was vulnerable as a non American, since he was not accustomed to checking on a girl’s age, and was not used to demanding to see the ID of a girl before making love.
Instead of Samantha’s mother admitting her error, the lack of supervision of her 13 year old daughter which caused the problem, she erroneously blamed Roman Polanski for everything, and called the police.
Did Roman Polanski mean to harm Samantha. I don’t think so. Roman was involved in his usual activities, just like so many other men. Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Bill Clinton, to name but a few.
The urge for sex does come with the genes. Men have to learn to check on a girl’s age. And if it is not part of one’s original culture it doesn’t necessarily sink in, or become automatic overnight.
Polanski's California case in a nutshell - a culture clash & CLUSTER F...
The cluster started when Samantha’s mother did not chaperone her 13 year old to a photo shoot with the famous French movie director Roman Polanski.
Roman Polanski was photographed half naked with his wife Sharon Tate 10 years earlier, and was married in the Playboy Club, so what did the mother expect. If it is true that Polanski said no to the mother going along, the mother should have nipped her underage daughter's photo shoot in the bud.
Regarding Arrest and Extradition
On 26th September 2009 French/Polish National Roman Polanski had travelled to accept an honor, a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival in Switzerland.
In the past Switzerland has acted neutrally, but Roman Polanski was arrested upon arrival, in a bait and switch operation more typical of Los Angeles.
Note: The bait was a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival, the switch was the arrest.
A good reason for holding a Film Festival in Zurich Switzerland prior to the filmmaker Roman Polanski's arrest, is so that filmmakers could air their films without a fear of retaliation and reprisals.
There are filmmakers from many different countries who can get into all sorts of trouble for showing their films, as many countries place restrictions on filmmakers in what they can show in a movie,
Or other countries may still harbor resentment for what has already been shown politically or otherwise...
Arresting one of the most famous directors in the world, Roman Polanski on his way to a film festival in Switzerland, has the dubious distinction - of sending a chilling message to filmmakers everywhere.
THAT is what all the Movie Directors & Entertainment Industry people are complaining about.
They want to keep FREE SPEECH and a feeling of safety and security for themselves in all the world's film festivals.
In addition the culprit for the chilling effect against movie makers which has been conveniently lost and forgotten in the shuffle is LOS ANGELES
And even though Switzerland did agree to carry out the bait and switch operations using the Zurich Film Festival as bait, Switzerland is only partially to blame, since it is Los Angeles that requested the bait and switch operation which made use of the Swiss Film Festival to arrest Polanski.
In Conclusion Switzerland Officials had plenty of opportunity to arrest Polanski in Switzerland without involving their Zurich Switzerland Film Festival.
In complying with Los Angeles's wishes and using the Swiss Film Festival in a bait and switch operation, it is obvious that Swiss Officials are no longer acting with integrity, or independently and if this continues more than just their film festivals will be harmed in future.
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