ROMAN POLANSKI ARRESTED! Lady Justice Sure Is Sneaky!
Graciously sent to me via a post comment, here is Pristash’s news transfer from the latimes.com site, care of the AP news wire, THANKS PRISTASH!
Roman Today & 1969
Roman Polanski in Swiss custody on 1978 warrant
The director was arriving late Saturday to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival when he was detained at the airport, festival organizers say.
Samantha Geimer 1969 & Today Associated Press
4:32 AM PDT, September 27, 2009
ZURICH — Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said today.
The organizers said in a statement that Polanski was detained by police Saturday in relation to a 1978 U.S. request, without giving details.
Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski's arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.
Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment.
Polanski fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.
The 76-year-old director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."
Festival organizers said Polanski traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.
They said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but that they would go ahead with today's planned retrospective of the director's work.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
September 27, 2009 6:18 AM
Comments
Anger in France and Poland after Polanski arrest
Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:42pm EDT
* French politicians seek release of Polanski
* Artists question Swiss motives for arresting director
* Poland considers appealing to United States
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Artists and film makers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing the case.
Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "stunned" by the news, adding that both he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to see the acclaimed director returned swiftly to his family.
"(Mitterrand) profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life," the culture ministry said in a statement.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also issued a statement, saying he had spoken to his Swiss counterpart to demand that Polanski's rights were fully respected and that a "favourable" solution be rapidly found.
Polanski holds French citizenship and is married to French singer actress Emmanuelle Seigner. He has spent much of his life here since fleeing the United States in 1978, but regularly visits countries where he does not expect extradition woe.
Robert Harris, a British novelist who said he had been working with Polanski for much of the past three years writing two screenplays, expressed outrage over the arrest.
"I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in Gstaad.
"It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated," he said.
Born in Paris, Polanski moved to Poland with his Jewish family when still a toddler shortly before World War Two. His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, but Polanski avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the West.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
"I am considering approaching the American authorities over the possibility of the U.S. president proclaiming an act of clemency which would settle the matter once and for all," Sikorski was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.
Poland's film-makers' association also rose to his defence.
"We do not understand why the Swiss invited Polanski to a film festival, where he was to have received a life's achievement award, and then arrested him," said association president, Jacek Bromski.
"We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness." (Additional reporting by Warsaw bureau; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
http://www.examiner.com/x-4819-Cable-TV-Examiner~y2009m9d28-Joy-Behar-Show-to-debut-on-HLN-Tuesday