ZURICH/PARIS – Film director Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland over a US charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, will fight extradition to the United States, his lawyer said yesterday.
Polanski (76), who has dual French and Polish citizenship, was detained on Saturday after arriving to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.
“He is in fighting mood and determined to defend himself,” Herve Temime, Polanski’s lawyer, told France Info radio, adding that his client was stunned by the arrest as he was a regular visitor to Switzerland, with a chalet at the ski resort of Gstaad.
“We have begun by requesting his release, which should be done today in principle,” Mr Temime said. “There is no reason in law, or regarding the facts or in terms of the most basic justice to keep Roman Polanski a single day in prison.”
A Swiss justice ministry spokesman said it was theoretically possible that Polanski could be released on bail, although that was very unlikely. “The criteria for bail are very strict,” Guido Balmer said.
Polanski was arrested in the US in 1977 and charged with giving drugs and alcohol to a minor, Samantha Geimer, and having unlawful sex with her. Geimer, who lives in Hawaii, has since said Polanski should not face any jail time.
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner spoke to his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey to discuss the case, a Swiss ministry spokesman said. Mr Kouchner also told French radio he was working with Poland on the matter and had written to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
During a visit to Paris yesterday, Swiss economy minister Doris Leuthard said the country had no choice but to enforce an international arrest warrant.
“The Americans strongly believe that the arrest of Mr Polanski is necessary,” she told a news conference. “That’s for them to decide. Switzerland is simply a state where the police functions and where we treat all people in the same way.”
Ms Leuthard rejected suggestions that Berne had arrested Polanski to help patch up ties strained by a high-profile US tax case against Swiss bank UBS, which agreed a settlement over charges it helped wealthy Americans stash assets in secret accounts.
“The two things have absolutely no connection,” she said, and when pressed on the timing of the arrest referred further questions to the Swiss justice department.
Swiss authorities have said that in the past they only heard about Polanski’s visits after he left the country. The US authorities have up to 60 days to make a firm extradition request, but Polanski can appeal to the Swiss federal penal court of justice.
Wearing red badges reading “Free Polanski”, the Zurich Film Festival jury accused Switzerland of “philistine collusion”.
“We hope today this latest order will be dropped,” said jury president Debra Winger. “It is based on a three-decade-old case that is all but dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by and wait for his release and his next master work.”
Other members of the movie profession including Italian actor Monica Bellucci, French actor Fanny Ardant, president of the Cannes film festival Gilles Jacob and Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, issued a petition demanding Polanski’s immediate release. – (Reuters)