Polanski wants back in

[valpomike]

I have read where Roman Polanski wants back in the U.S. after raping a under age women, many years ago, and he wants all charges drooped. He is bad for the Polish people, and if he does come back here, he must go to prison, no matter what his age, he did the crime, and must pay for it. I think we should not even show his files here.

Mike

[valpomike]

Not one of you said, what you think on this, would you let him back in the U.S.A. and drop his charges?
Tell me what you think.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Dec 10, 2008 15:29:49 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Not one of you said, what you think on this, would you let him back in the U.S.A. and drop his charges?
Tell me what you think.

Mike

Hmmm... I am not sure. The incident was a rig-up, he was framed by the girl`s mother, she had planned it with her partner, admitted it after years. She sort of presented/offered/pimped her daughter to Polanski. Let him pay the compensation to this adult woman the girl has become and let him go.

[valpomike]

Rape is rape, even if the girl said yes, she was under age, and he did force her. If this was my daughter, I would want to go to him, where he is, and kill him, long ago.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Polanski rape dismissal opposed

The Press Association

1/6/09

Movie director Roman Polanski's bid to have a 31-year-old rape charge against him dismissed has been challenged in court.

Prosecutors presented documents which included the most graphic account yet of his sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.

Samantha Geimer, age 13

They said Polanski's motion should be denied outright and declared his claims of judicial misconduct should not be heard in court unless he returns to the United States.

Polanski is seeking to have the Los Angeles County Superior Court removed from the case, accusing the court of bias and prejudice. His attorneys last month filed a request to dismiss the charge against him because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct detailed in a television documentary.

In a new motion, attorney Chad Hummel is seeking removal of Polanski's case to the California Judicial Council for resolution. He also wants the council to appoint a judge from another county to hear the case.

As a fugitive, the Academy Award-winning and four-time nominated Polish-born film director would risk arrest if he entered the country.

He fled the US in 1977 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, since when he has lived in self-imposed exile in France.

Polanski's lawyers have suggested the matter can be argued without his presence.

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Polanski lawyer claims LA Superior Court biased

By LINDA DEUTSCH

1/6/09

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An attorney for fugitive movie director Roman Polanski is seeking to have the Los Angeles County Superior Court removed from his notorious sex case, accusing the court of bias and prejudice against Polanski.

Polanski has been a fugitive in France for 30 years after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles. His attorneys filed a request last month to dismiss the charge against him because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that was detailed in a television documentary.

In a motion filed Monday, attorney Chad Hummel sought removal of Polanski's case to the California Judicial Council for resolution. Hummel wants the council to appoint a judge from another county to hear the case.

He claims that statements by a court spokesman since the original motion was filed showed that the courts have prejudged at least one issue — whether Polanski must appear in court on Jan. 21 for his request to be considered. Such an appearance might make him subject to arrest.

The Polish-born Polanski, 75, has been living in self-imposed exile since fleeing the United States in 1978 after admitting he had sex with a girl he hired as a model for a photo shoot. Polanski, who had already been incarcerated for a psychological diagnosis for 42 days, had been scheduled to be sentenced and sent back to prison. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest that is still in effect.

The motion quotes court spokesman Alan Parachini as telling members of the media that Polanski was required to make a court appearance on his request for dismissal. Hummel said that issue must be resolved by a judge.

"The court's public comments constituted a prejudgment of the merits of Mr. Polanski's request ... without having received full briefing, evidence or argument from the parties," the motion said.

Hummel also alleged that the court and the district attorney's office had mounted "a campaign in the media in an apparent attempt to protect one of its own judges."

He maintains that Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler tried to resolve the Polanski case in 1997 in a deal that would have required televised coverage of Polanski's court appearance. The court has denied that such a requirement was proposed.

District attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the office would file a response to the motion for dismissal on Tuesday.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 21 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Polanski, the director of "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby," has continued to direct films while in exile, including the 2002 Holocaust drama "The Pianist," for which he won the best-director Academy Award.

The woman with whom Polanski admitted having sex has said that she wants the charge dropped and that Polanski should be allowed to return to the United States.

The case was a sensation when it broke. Polanski, the widower of Manson family murder victim Sharon Tate, was arrested for having sex with the girl. He was accused of giving her Quaaludes and champagne, taking her into a hot tub nude and having sex with her.

The effort to wipe out the charge comes after an HBO documentary, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which portrayed the late Superior Court Judge Laurence J. Rittenband as a publicity hound who held news conferences and engaged in extra judicial meetings about the case.

[valpomike]

Let him rot in France, we don't want him, unless in jail, no matter how old he is, he still is trash.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Roman Polanski Absent from Court
Polish filmmaker Roman Polañski will not appear in court in Los Angeles
The Krakow Post
5th May 2009
This week, a 30-year-old drama unfolds in a Los Angeles courtroom, but the man in the starring role will not be present. Roman Polañski, the acclaimed Polish director who has not stepped on American soil since his 1977 allegation of statutory rape, would risk being arrested if he were to return.
The trail stems from a December 2008 proposal by Polañski's lawyers to dismiss the original case, citing serious misconduct by the prosecutor and the court. As evidence, the lawyers presented a documentary film (Roman Polañski: Wanted and Desired) which insinuates that the presiding judge (who passed away in 1993) went back on his offer of a mild sentence in return for a confession from the director.
However, the currently presiding judge, Peter Espinoza, stated that a vital condition for considering a dismissal of the case is the director's presence at this week's trial. Chad Hummel and Douglas Dalton, Mr. Polañski's attorneys, argued otherwise in a letter addressed to the court on Monday, stating that the director's appearance "is neither necessary nor relevant" to the decision, as "the misconduct is plainly evident from the existing record." The letter also argued that refusing to dismiss the case is against the wishes of Samantha Geimer, the now 45-year-old victim.
However, if Mr. Polañski does not return to the U.S. by this Thursday, the 7th of May, the District Attorney's office has said that it will not budge on the matter.

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Roman Polanski refuses to return to US to appeal child sex conviction
Roman Polanski will not return to the US this week, despite a court refusing to overturn a 31-year-old child sex conviction if he does not meet Thursday's deadline to surrender to American authorities.
-----------------------------------------------
By Caroline Hedley in Los Angeles
telegraph.co. uk
5 May 2009


Samantha Geimer, age 13
Lawyers for the fugitive filmmaker claim Polanski - who pleaded guilty to having intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, Samantha Geimer, but fled the country in 1978 to avoid serving a jail term - insist the director should not have to break his self-imposed exile in order for his appeal to be heard.
Polanski, who now lives in France, wants his conviction overturned on the basis of alleged "judicial and prosecutorial misconduct". His lawyers claim these "wrongdoings" allegedly "...so distorted the legal process that the interests of justice can only be served with complete dismissal of the case".
Polanski was originally charged with several counts, includi ng rape by use of drugs. He entered into a plea deal and pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.
The French-Polish filmmaker spent 42 days in a California prison but fled the US before sentencing. He has never returned, despite winning an Academy Award for his 2003 film The Pianist.
In a filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, attorneys Chad Hummel and Douglas Dalton claimed their client's presence at an appeal hearing was "neither necessary nor relevant" as "the misconduct is plainly evident from the existing record".
In February, Judge Peter Espinoza conceded that their had been "substantial" errors made throughout the original case.
He refused to consider overturning the verdict until Polanski appeared before his court in person, stating that a request to have his conviction dismissed would be denied if he failed to re-enter the US by May 7th.
A spokeswoman for the District Attorney said of the decision: "The law is clear. He has to be here".
Polanski's lawyers plan to appeal the decision.

[valpomike]

We want him back in Jail, for good.

Mike

[Bonobo]

May 11, 2009 7:05:46 GMT 1 valpomike said:

We want him back in Jail, for good.
Mike

I thought you wouild say in Hell.

[locopolaco]

May 11, 2009 19:32:51 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

May 11, 2009 7:05:46 GMT 1 valpomike said:

We want him back in Jail, for good.
Mike

I thought you wouild say in Hell.

make him watch 'noz w wodzie' over and over..

[valpomike]

What do the rest of you, here in the U.S.A. think on this? Would you like him living next door to you, and your young daughters?
Or son's?

I don't want him anywhere near me. I don't know what I would do if he was.


Mike

[Bonobo]

May 11, 2009 21:09:07 GMT 1 valpomike said:

What do the rest of you, here in the U.S.A. think on this? Would you like him living next door to you, and your young daughters?
Or son's?
I don't want him anywhere near me. I don't know what I would do if he was.
Mike

He is 76 years old.

[valpomike]

So, you do the crime, you must do the time, at what ever age you are. Look at the guard, from Germany that is being returned to serve his time.


Mike

[locopolaco]

May 12, 2009 14:54:42 GMT 1 valpomike said:

So, you do the crime, you must do the time, at what ever age you are. Look at the guard, from Germany that is being returned to serve his time.


Mike

how is that even comparable?

[valpomike]

Do you think he should come back, and be O.K., overlook everything, and live next door to you, and your young daughters?

Mike

[locopolaco]

this is what the victim has to say about it:

That same month [February 2009], Samantha Geimer filed to have the charges against Polanski dismissed from court, saying that decades of publicity as well as the prosecutor's focus on lurid details continues to traumatize her and her family.[28]

[valpomike]

Some people will say anything for money, and I think this is what she is doing. He must stand trail, to see.

Mike

[locopolaco]

May 12, 2009 19:57:17 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Some people will say anything for money, and I think this is what she is doing. He must stand trail, to see.

Mike

there won't be a trial ever.. you may want to familiarize yourself with the actual case.

originally, polanski claimed that the mother of the girl was trying to set him up for blackmail, etc.. now the girl wants money?

don't throw your biases around and instead read up on it.

[valpomike]

No trail, than he can stay where he is, for life, and I would be happy.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities as the director arrived in the country to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival.

Polanski was held yesterday on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant, the festival organizers said today in an e-mailed statement. The arrest was confirmed by Zurich Cantonal Police spokesman Stefan Oberlin in a telephone interview.

Swiss authorities will decide on extradition and Polanski could appeal the decision in court, the Justice Ministry said in a statement on its Web site, adding the U.S. has sought the director worldwide since 2005.

Polanski, 76, left the U.S. in 1978 prior to being sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He hasn’t returned since and is considered a fugitive in the country. The director, a French citizen, asked a Los Angeles court in December to dismiss the 1977 case because of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

California Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza, who said in February that Polanski would have to come to the U.S. to get a hearing on his request, invoked the fugitive disentitlement doctrine to avoid any consideration of the facts and circumstances that forced the director to leave the country, Polanski’s lawyers said July 7 in a court filing.

A special ceremony will be held at the Zurich festival tonight “to allow everyone to express their solidarity for Roman Polanski and their admiration for his work,” the festival management said in their e-mail.

Lifetime Award

Tonight’s presentation of the Zurich festival’s “Golden Eye” award for his ‘distinctively surreal’’ life’s work has been postponed, the organizers said. A retrospective including his 1962 debut “Knife in the Water” will go ahead as planned.

Polanski won an Academy Award for “The Pianist” in 2003 and directed “Chinatown,” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”

He was born in Paris to Polish parents in 1933, according to the festival Web site. His mother died in the Auschwitz death camp, while he escaped the Jewish ghetto of Krakow and was hidden from the Nazis by Polish farmers.

Polanski’s pregnant wife, actress and model Sharon Tate, and four other people were murdered by members of the Charles Manson “family’ in 1969, while Polanski was in London. The director married Emmanuelle Seigner in 1989 and lives in Paris.

1977



2009


A few days ago the female murderer of Polański`s wife and unborn child died of brain cancer in American prison at the age of 61.

[Bonobo]

Today I asked my students what they think. Only one boy said the matter should be hushed down, the rest were in favour of Polanski arrest and trial in US. An adult man must be responsible for his deeds.

Polish filmmakers, government defend Polanski
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Associated Press
2009-09-29

Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda and other Polish filmmakers appealed Monday to U.S. and Swiss authorities to free Roman Polanski, decrying his arrest as a "provocation. "
Their appeal came as the Polish and French governments wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and called up Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey about the case.

In Switzerland, Polanski's lawyer was trying to obtain his release on bail and the Polish diplomatic mission there said it was offering its assistance to the director.

The 76-year-old Polanski, a dual Polish and French citizen, was arrested Saturday in Zurich on a U.S. warrant for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl and fleeing to France a year later.

The Polish Filmmakers Association called on Switzerland to immediately release Polanski and urged U.S. officials to review their indictment.

In a letter on their Web site, the Polish filmmakers noted Polanski's "great contribution to the world of cinematography" and criticized his arrest as he arrived to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Zurich Film Festival as a "provocation. "

They said Polanski's action decades ago deserves a "negative moral evaluation" but said he fled America fearing that he would not have a fair trial.

Polanski, the director of "Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Pianist," reached a plea deal in 1978, but was threatened with more prison time than previously agreed upon and fled to France before he was formally sentenced.

Jacek Bromski, the head of the Polish Filmmakers Association, said in the eyes of the public, Polanski has already "atoned for the sins of his young years."

"He has paid for it by not being able to enter the U.S. and in his professional life he has paid for it by not being able to make films in Hollywood," Bromski said.

Polanski spent his childhood and early adult years in Poland and survived the Holocaust there thanks to strangers who hid him in the countryside. His mother died at Auschwitz. He studied movie making in Lodz, in central Poland, and made his feature debut with the 1963 psychological thriller "Knife in the Water," considered today a Polish classic film, before leaving for the West.

His international success has been a source of pride for many Poles.

"He survived the Holocaust, was in hiding during World War II, he left Poland because he did not accept the communist system, he sought to turn his dreams into life," noted Agnieszka Odorowicz, the head of Poland's Film Institute.

Odorowicz told The Associated Press that she believes Polanski should be released and have a chance for a fair judgment because the life he has since led since then shows he is "not the man that on that ill-fated evening did a terrible thing."

If he hadn't fled the U.S., world cinematography would have suffered a great loss because he would have been prevented from making movies, she said.

Many Poles agreed.

"I think that the arrest of Polanski is a scandal," said Marek Kulas, 47, a real estate developer. "It has now been more than 30 years. He is an outstanding person who has functioned in the world without any further problems of that nature after that."

Added student Urszula Kicman, 22: "I don't support what he did but I don't look at him as a private individual _ I look at him as an artist."

In 2003, Polanski received an Academy Award for the "The Pianist" but could not travel to the U.S. to receive it and accepted it in absentia.

Polish Culture Minister Adam Zdrojewski expressed hope that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former movie actor, could apply clemency.

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Poland tries to pass harsh sex crime laws, decries Polanski arrest
blog.foreignpolicy. com
09/28/2009

Yesterday, award-winning director Roman Polanski was arrested in Zurich for a long outstanding U.S. warrant. In 1977, Polanski was arrested for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. He pled guilty, and fled the county in 1978 to avoid going to jail. He eventually became a dual citizen of France (which does not extradite) and Poland.

Today, the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to stop the extradition. Kouchner called the arrest "a bit sinister." In these countries, Polanski is widely regarded as an exceptional filmmaker and a victim of the overzealous American justice system. (HBO made a documentary about this dichotomy, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.)

But Sikorski's defense of Polanski comes at an awkward time: Poland is in the process of implementing much-more-harsh punishments for people who commit sex crimes. Last week, all but three of the 460 members of Poland's lower chamber of parliament voted to punish certain sex offenders with chemical castration. People convicted of raping a person under 15 (the crime Polanski pled guilty to) or a close relative would be given drugs to diminish their libido, under the new law. On top of chemical castration, there are increased penalties for incest and pedophilia. Trying to justify pedophilia would also be criminalized.

Regardless, it seems Polanski might end up serving his time in the United States, ending his 31 years on the lam. While abroad, Polanski has made a number of films -- including Tess, which was dedicated to his wife Sharon Tate (who was murdered by the Manson Family) and the Oscar-winning The Pianist, set during the Holocaust. After being forced into the Kraków Ghetto during World War II, Polanski escaped the concentration camps; his mother did not and was killed in Auschwitz. He also made arguably the creepiest movie of all time, The Ninth Gate, starring Johnny Depp as a used book salesman who tries to track down the devil.

[valpomike]

They have my vote, and the French can keep Polanski, or come back and do the time, life in prison.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Again it has been proven that politicians and cultural elites of the country are alienated from common people. Most Poles want Polanski extradited and tried in US for what he did.

Politicians face backlash over Polanski support
Financial Times
October 1 2009

Politicians in France and Poland are facing a public backlash over their support for the self-confessed child abuser Roman Polanski, the world-renowned film director.

Having misjudged the public mood by condemning Switzerland' s arrest of Mr Polanski on 32-year-old charges of illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl in the US, the governments are now being forced to backtrack on their calls to free him.

In France, where Nicolas Sarkozy, president, has demanded strong penalties for sex offenders, some believe that the government's action in defending the Oscar-winning celebrity highlights the deep divisions between a Paris-based ruling elite and the people they represent.

Yesterday, Luc Chatel, French government spokesman, distanced himself from comments made on Sunday by ministers after Mr Polanski's arrest was revealed.

Frédéric Mitterrand, culture minister, had dismissed the offence as "an old story that doesn't make much sense", and foreign minister Bernard Kouchner had called the arrest "sinister". He also, with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, wrote to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, calling for the extradition warrant to be dropped.

Mr Chatel said that the film director, born in France to Polish parents, was "neither above nor below the law. There is a legal process in train for a serious affair - the rape of a minor."

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, has called on ministers to express "greater restraint" over Mr Polanski's travails, after Bogdan Zdrojewski, culture minister, denounced the arrest as a "legalised lynching". Mr Tusk told reporters: "This is a matter which obviously involves an outstanding Polish director, and did happen many years ago."

He said: "But this is a matter which involves rape, having sex with a child, and we cannot mix politics into it."

In France, public opinion polls have consistently shown that 65-75 per cent of the population believes Mr Polanski should be extradited to the US, while many members of the ruling UMP party have also criticised the government's actions.

Mr Polanski, who admitted a charge of illegal sex with a minor, fled the US in 1978 after he was told the judge would not abide by a plea bargain agreed with the victim, who has since called for the charges to be dropped.

In Poland, public opinion has also begun to grow against the director, with many newspapers calling for him to return to the US.

Alain Duhamel, a French political commentator, said the opinion polls revealed much about the divisions between the elite and the mass in France. "There is a Parisian France and a French France," he said.

"There is the intellectual, cultural world, a world of complicity and so it shows solidarity" with Mr Polanski, Mr Duhamel said. "And then there is deep France, which is more classic, more conservative. This affair will feed the feeling that France's leaders and its intellectuals live by codes and rules that have nothing to do with ordinary people."

Adding weight to Mr Duhamel's analysis, editorials in Paris-based newspapers such as Liberation, the left-leaning daily founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, largely supported demands that Mr Polanski's extradition and charges be dropped, while provincial papers often attacked his supporters.

"Can we be so forgetful of the tragedy that was lived by a young girl of 13 that we describe it as nothing more than an accident in the life of a genius? Rape is never nice," wrote the editorial in La Charente Libre.

In Hollywood, the mood remains firmly supportive, with many cinema actors and directors signing a petition calling for his immediate release.

But in Switzerland, public reaction to Mr Polanski's arrest has been limited. The Swiss government has been united in its defence of the detention. Still, in the face of the international outcry, Micheline Calmy-Rey, foreign minister, has admitted a lack of "sensitivity" in the handling of the arrest, saying her ministry had not been told in advance in spite of the potential it had for international repercussions.

By Peggy Hollinger in Paris, Jan Cienski in Warsaw, Haig Simonian in Zurich and Matt Garrahan in Los Angeles

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Pro-Polanski voices rare in conservative Poland
By DPA
Oct 1, 2009

Warsaw - The Polish artists and politicians who came out in support of Roman Polanski after the filmmaker was arrested on a 32- year-old sexual abuse charge seem to represent a minority opinion in the conservative nation that recently passed a tough law against pedophiles.

Days after a number of prominent Polish intellectuals and politicians expressed support for the filmmaker, some journalists and ordinary citizens have raised their voices, condemning Polanski's behavior and saying he should be treated equally before the law.

A poll on news website tvn24.pl of nearly 14,000 people found that 53 per cent believe Polanski should 'answer for his act.'

Only a minority, 2 per cent of respondents, thought the director should be pardoned because of his artistic legacy.

Polanski, on his way to the Zurich Film Festival for an award, was arrested Saturday in Switzerland on a warrant from a 1977 California case in which he pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a 13- year-old girl.

Charged initially with more serious crimes, Polanski pleaded guilty to a lesser crime but fled the US in 1978 before sentencing.

Ordinary Poles and newspaper commentators lashed out at officials who defended the director.

'It's not the government's role to defend someone like this. That's the role of the court,' Warsaw resident Darek Watkowski, 38, told German Press Agency dpa. 'What's disturbing is the comments I read trying to scale down the weight of the crime. Because it was a serious thing.'

An editorial in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza alluded to the novel Animal Farm and its portrayal of Communist corruption. 'For Polish politicians, some of Poland's citizens are more equal than others,' the newspaper said.

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a member of parliament from the Law and Justice Party, said: 'It's not good when the Polish government engages its authority to whiten,' or clean up, Polanski's legacy.

Some Polish politicians responded quickly with their support when the 76-year-old director was jailed.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he would appeal for the director's release and ask US President Barack Obama to use his powers to pardon the filmmaker.

Sikorski's statement on Sunday came days after Poland's parliament approved a law making chemical castration mandatory for pedophiles convicted of raping a close family member or a person under 15 years of age.

The treatment - which lowers sexual drive - would be administered after a pedophile's release from prison.

Piotr Kladoczny of the Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights in Warsaw, said the law is the strictest he knows of. 'I haven't heard of anywhere else where it's so strict that it's mandatory. ... My claim is this: If someone is ill, then you treat him. If he's convicted of a crime, then you punish him.'

Few public figures in Poland commented on the new law in relation to Polanski, but bloggers and columnists worldwide picked up on the connection.

Sikorski's defence of Polanski 'comes at an awkward time,' when Poland is in the midst of implementing stricter punishments for sex crimes, wrote a blogger for the US website Foreign Policy.

'Would Poland forcibly castrate Polanski?' asked an editorial in the Hamilton Spectator, a daily in Ontario, Canada.

But Sikorski was not alone in coming to the director's defence.

Polish filmmakers appealed in a letter to President Lech Kaczynski to intervene in the arrest, saying Polanski should be 'morally condemned but fled the US after pleading guilty in an 'attempt to escape a lynching at court.'

Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa - known as a religious Catholic - also argued against extraditing the director.

'He might have committed a sin,' Walesa said. 'But it should be forgiven if it's his only sin.'

Kaczynski was more cautious in commenting on the Polanski case, saying he understood the artists' plea but that everyone was 'equal before the law.'

Prime Minister Donald Tusk - who has previously called pedophiles 'degenerates' - said Polanski should get Polish consular help. But he warned that ministers did not need to get involved, and the case was one 'of rape, sex with a child.'

'Tusk took a human approach,' said Warsaw resident Leokadia Grzywinska. 'That was sensible, because it's not the government's role to judge.'

[valpomike]

Could be he is getting support for actors all over the world, is because they are doing the same thing, and think it is O.K., but I don't. Send to Poland to have his nuts cut off, and than send him back to France, who wanted him and helped him stay out of jail.
If he ever came back to the USA I would not want him to live next door to me.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Polish museum opens Polanski exhibit
AFP
10/8/09

WARSAW — An exhibit exploring the career of Franco-Polish film-maker Roman Polanski opened Thursday in a film museum in Lodz, the Polish city where the embattled director studied cinema.

The museum features photographs from Polanski's private collection and from his friends. It also includes 200 posters of his movies from around the world and will have a retrospective of his movies.

The museum, however, denied that the exhibit was linked to Polanski's arrest in Switzerland, where he was detained last month on a US warrant over a 1977 child sex case.

"You cannot prepare such an exhibit in a few weeks. We have worked on it for a year and a half," Krystyna Zamyslowska, the exhibit's manager, told PAP news agency.

"The exhibit had from the beginning the consent of the artist, who approved its script," she said.

The Oscar-winning director is facing a lengthy legal battle to avoid justice in the United States in connection with a 1977 sex case involving a 13-year-old girl after he was arrested on an international warrant in Zurich 10 days ago.

Polanski has asked a court to release him on bail while he fights the extradition request. The Swiss justice ministry said Tuesday it asked the court to reject his demand for bail.

[Bonobo]

Polanski Is Refused Bail by Court Over Flight RiskBy Joseph Heaven

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Roman Polanski was denied bail by a Swiss court that said the filmmaker has a strong motivation to flee the country to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he faces as many as 50 years in jail for a sex-crime.

There is a "high" risk Polanski, 76, would flee because his family and work might suffer from a long prison sentence, the Swiss court in Bellinzona said in a ruling today. An offer to use the director's house at a Swiss ski resort to secure bail was rejected by the court.

"The detention of the accused during the entire extradition proceedings is the rule," Swiss Federal Criminal Court Judge Cornelia Cova said in a ruling today. "This allows Switzerland to meet the obligations of its extradition treaties."

The ruling is the second time Polanski was denied bail since his arrest at Zurich airport on Sept. 26. Polanski, whose movies include "The Pianist" and "Chinatown," faces jail in the U.S. for illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl. He fled the country in 1978 before he could be sentenced.

Messages left on office and mobile phones of Polanksi's lawyers in Zurich and Paris weren't immediately answered. The Swiss Justice Ministry declined a separate request for bail earlier this month.

The same court will rule on an extradition request from the U.S. Justice Department at a later date. The criminal court's decision may be appealed to the Swiss Supreme Court in Lausanne.

Guilty Plea

Polanski has already eluded the U.S. criminal process once, by traveling to Europe in 1978, the Swiss court said today.

Polanski was first charged on six felony counts alleging he drugged and raped the 13-year-old. He later pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor after the lawyer for the girl's family asked prosecutors to avoid a jury trial.

Lorenz Erni, Polanski's lawyer, argued that continuing detention could lead to "the financial end" for the director and his family, if it prevented him from finishing his film "The Ghost," according to the court ruling.

Unidentified investors might sue Polanski for "ruinous damages," Erni argued, saying a long jail sentence might cost investors $40 million, if it prevented Polanski from working. The court said this and the separation from his family were examples of Polanski's motivation to skip bail.

`High' Flight Risk

"In view of the small size of Switzerland, which allows a border crossing namely to France, the claimant's home country, within a few hours from every point, the risk of flight by land or air is high," the court said in its 17-page judgment.

Polanski's offer to forfeit his residence in Gstaad if he fled isn't a proper form of bail, the court said. Only cash, assets deposited with the court or a bank guarantee can be used, the court said.

Polanski, who married Emmanuelle Seigner in 1989 and lives in Paris, won the Oscar for best director for the 2002 film "The Pianist." Actor Harrison Ford accepted the award for the fugitive.

Paying for Police

Polanski also offered to submit to house arrest in Gstaad, the court said. He would be prepared to meet the cost of electronic monitoring or police surveillance, his lawyer said, according to the court's judgment.

In 1969, Polanski's pregnant wife, actress and model Sharon Tate, and four other people were murdered by members of the Charles Manson "family" while Polanski was in London.

Polanski was born in Paris to Polish parents in 1933, according to the Zurich film festival's Web site. His mother died in the Auschwitz death camp after he escaped the Jewish ghetto in Krakow, Poland, and was hidden from the Nazis by Polish farmers.

The Swiss case is: Roman Raymond Polanski v. Ministry of Justice. The U.S. case is: Polanski v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, B217290, California Court Appeals, 2nd Appellate District (Los Angeles).

[Bonobo]

I just learnt they freed Polanski from house arrest.


Polanski appears in public
19.07.20 14:39

Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski appeared in public Saturday for the first time since Swiss courts set him free. The director was at a jazz festival and thanked those who stood up in his defense.

Polanski, at a jazz festival in the Swiss city of Montreux, attended his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner’s concert. This was the 76-year-old director’s first public appearance since he was freed from house arrest last Monday by the Swiss Ministry of Justice, who decided not to extradite Polanski to the United States to face criminal charges of sexual assault of a thirteen year old – charges dating back to 1977.
“I still value Switzerland, and especially the people of Gstaad because of the support they showed me,” stated Polanski when asked how he feels about the country that arrested him and sentenced him to house arrest. The director added that, while under house arrest in Gstaad, many locals brought him flowers and bottles of wine.

The French-Polish director specifically thanked the many people who supported him and defended him over the past ten months, following his arrest and sentencing. “I especially want to thank my wife and children without whom I could not have managed to maintain my dignity and withstand this difficult situation.”

Polanski was speaking to a television crew from the Swiss TRS1.

[Bonobo]

Polish court rules against extradition of Polański
30.10.2015 14:16
A Polish court ruled against the extradition to the US of director Roman Polański on Friday over a 1977 case of unlawful sex with a minor.

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