Since last November Roman Polanski has been under house arrest in Switzerland, waiting to see whether he’ll be extradited to America to answer charges of statutory rape that date back to the late 70s. He was charged back then with getting a 13-year-old drunk and having sex with her. However while he put together a plea deal and plead guilty, he fled the country before sentencing.
Since his arrest, his lawyers have been busy arguing with the US courts, asking him to be sentenced in absentia, and also for allegations the judge broke the law in the case to be investigated. However the courts have refused to act, due to laws that say an accused person who’s fled justice can’t appeal to the courts unless they appear in person. Through all this Polanksi has said very little publicly, however he’s now released a statement through his friend, philosopeher Bertrand Henri-Levy’s website.
Polanski says, ‘I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum. I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part. I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.’
He adds, ‘It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States… I can remain silent no longer because the American authorities have just decided, in defiance of all the arguments and depositions submitted by third parties, not to agree to sentence me in absentia even though the same Court of Appeal recommended the contrary. I can remain silent no longer because the California court has dismissed the victims numerous requests that proceedings against me be dropped, once and for all, to spare her from further harassment every time this affair is raised once more.’
His statement forcefully says that he believes he’s served his sentence, and that all he wants is ‘to be treated fairly’. However it doesn’t change the fact that whatever the prosecutorial problems (he details more of these disputed allegations is his statement), he fled justice (not to mention that he did sleep with a 13-year-old), and that while he may have worked out a plea bargain with the district attornet, a judge doesn’t legally have to abide by that. Maybe it was unfair, but it was his decision to flee and his decision to break the law in the first place.
He says, ‘I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago.’ He still seems unable to realise that maybe the US authorities want him in the same way they’d want anyone else who fled the jurisdiction. It’s not a personal vendetta, he broke the law, and it’s his decision not to accept the concequences (or seemingly any responsibility at all) that’s caused it to drag on for over 30 years. If he just went back, he could get it all sorted, probably with very little jail time.