Sentence
Swiss won't extradite Polanski on child sex charge
Switzerland will not send Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States to face child sex charges, the Ministry of Justice announced Monday.
Polanski pleaded guilty in Los Angeles, California to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 but fled to Europe before he was sentenced.
He was arrested in Switzerland last year and had been fighting extradition since then.
The Swiss rejected the American request because the United States did not supply all the legal records Switzerland requested, and because Polanski had a reasonable right to think he would not be arrested if he visited the country, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said.
U.S. prosecutors cannot apply again to Switzerland to have Polanski sent there, she said, but could apply to other countries to detain and extradite him.
Polanski was 43 at the time he had unlawful sex with the girl. He is now 76.
Prosecutors dropped rape and other charges in exchange for his guilty plea.
But Polanski fled the country before he was sentenced after learning that the judge might not go along with the short jail term Polanski expected to get in exchange for his plea.
He has been a fugitive since 1978 and lived in France before his arrest.
Swiss authorities released the director from jail on $4.5 million bail in early December "pending extradition" to the United States.
Polanski's victim came forward long ago and has made her identity public, saying she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled.
Samantha Geimer, now in her 40s and a married mother of three, has called for the case to be tossed out.
Her attorney, Larry Silver, reiterated her position in December , saying details of the case harm her every time the story is in the news.
Defense attorneys also argued that prosecutors are ignoring the victim's wishes.
Polanski's attorney, Chad Hummel, has been pushing for Polanski to be sentenced without having to return to Los Angeles.
Prosecutors have vigorously opposed sentencing him in absentia.
In court papers filed in January, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren stated the reasons in no uncertain terms.
"The defendant is a fugitive," Walgren wrote. "A fugitive child rapist, who for 32 years has made a mockery of our criminal justice system, should not be given the power or authority to request anything of this court until he, the criminal, acknowledges this court's lawful authority by surrendering on his outstanding warrant."
Polanski won an Oscar for best director for the Holocaust drama "The Pianist," and was nominated for "Tess," "Chinatown," and the screenplay he wrote for "Rosemary's Baby."
(Published by CNN – July 12, 2010)