Swiss, Citing Request Flaw, Won't Send Roman Polanski to U.S.

Swiss government's decision Monday, July 12, rejected the U.S. request to Roman Polanski was completed in 10 months of legal battle between the rat Franco-Polish film director and the American justice officials. But that is unlikely to end the war by conducting the U.S. justice system to make Polanski to keep Los Angeles in open court the day he left 32 years ago, after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Swiss government's announcement Monday that it was not to Polanski in the U.S. took many observers by surprise. Swiss courts had previously rejected attempts to block Polanski Switzerland with U.S. arrest warrants that had prompted the director's arrest last September of his arrival to attend a film festival in Zurich. However, the decision essentially gives the government the benefit of doubt to Polanski's claims that California was in 1977 reneged excuse, deal with his consent, which assumes the director because he was going to flee in the first place. To explain the decision, the Swiss cited rejection by U.S. justice authorities last month to deliver the secret testimony given by the prosecutor in the case, which can be left on these requirements by Polanski. (See Brief History of extraditions.)

"That's because the decision is based on the fact that it is not possible to exclude the necessary certainty of a fault in the U.S. extradition request, although the question was thoroughly investigated," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said at a news conference. "The 76-year-old French-Polish film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to U.S. freedom, restricting measures against him were revoked.

So, why the Swiss authorities decided to take the word of a man who pre-excuse-bargained charges of rape represents a 13-year-old girl in 1977, he pleaded guilty carry out a little free illegal sex with a little over the California legal authorities. The answer, apparently, secret testimony given on January 26 by the original prosecutor, Roger Gunson, the United States last month, said he is not to Bern. Swiss officials seem convinced that it is possible that something is Gunson's statement, which is supported Polanski insisted that either Gunson or judge in the case - or both - went back to a plea agreement that the director will be sentenced to 42 days custody. (Read the two minute bio Roman Polanski.)

Documents saved in the American side that allows for the establishment of Switzerland whether "the judge assured the parties was indeed time for September 19, 1977, hearing that the 42 day Roman Polanski spent under psychiatric observation in a California prison covered the entire amount of the sentence he was serving "excuse under the agreement, says the Swiss Justice Ministry statement. "If these facts are true, then Roman Polanski would serve the entire amount of his sentence, and the American extradition request, and with it the delivery order, are shorn of any fund ... Taking into account the uncertainties that exist regarding these issues, the return request must be rejected.

California Department of Justice officials for many would like that, excuse the details of a transaction even though, Polanski has a legal obligation to face sentencing. To this end, U.S. authorities have upped their efforts to convince the fugitive to surrender himself to court, or be brought back into force. The reversal of the Swiss decision to honor the U.S. request for extradition and the arrest will make that much more difficult. But it also means Polanski should be very careful about where he travels, if he ever leaves again in France (where the laws prohibit the authorities from extraditing citizens to foreign countries), because the possibility that the U.S. will try to make sure that the Swiss debacle not repeated in any future arrests. (See the top 25 crimes of the last century.)

Swiss reaction to the French decision has been relatively muted, in contrast to the wild denunciation by the United States, Switzerland and many French political and cultural figures, when Polanski was arrested last year. At that time, many such detractors lamented, what is called victimization by a great artist puritanically obsessed and legally offensive American society that need to get more than 30 years old "indiscretion" with a kid. Obviously, the expectation of such logic this time, declaring the Swiss decision, Widmer-Schlumpf pointedly noted that it is based on the details of Polanski's plea bargain, not to determine whether he is guilty or not guilty. "