Since last November when he was arrested on the way to the Zurich Film Festival, Roman Polanski has been unable to leave Switzerland (he was initially imprisoned, but has mostly been under house arrest) while the country’s courts considered extraditing him to the US under the international arrest warrant America issued several years ago. The US want him to answer charges of sex with a minor stemming from 1977, from which he fled 30 years ago after pleading guilty but before being sentenced (for more info on the actual allegation, CLICK HERE).
While the extradition case has been going back and forth in both the Swiss and US courts for months, the Swiss Justice Ministry has now ruled that Polanski won’t be sent to America, and that all restictions on his movements can now be lifted. While not going too far into the specifics, it seems the desicision was largely down to technicalities and the US not providing enough documentation of the original sentencing procedure. The statement the Swiss ministry released says, ‘The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a fault in the US extradition request.’
The original sentencing procedure in the 70s case has been a major bone of contention, with allegations the judge took part in an illegal conspiracy to make an example of Polanski, by getting him to plead guilty and agree to a plea deal, which the judge planned to ignore so he could sentence him to far longer in prison. As a result, there was a question mark over whether the case against the director would have to be thrown out even if Polanski was extradited (however the US courts can’t officially rule on this while the director is a fugitive). Swiss extradition laws also need a someone to be likely to serve more than 18 months in prison if they are sent to the country looking for them, which was less than certain in the Polanski case.
It’s certainly good news for the 76-year-old director, who fought tooth and nail against the extradition. It also vindicates his strategy of fighting harder in the US courts than the Swiss ones, as it seems the uncertainty his lawyers helped create by arguing against the validity of the original case and sentencing, has helped sway the Swiss authorities. The Swiss Justice Ministry also cited ‘national interests’ in its decison, although they didn’t state exactly what this meant, although it is known France, where Polanski is a citizen, was pressuring its neighbour to reject the US request.
Roman is now free to leave Switzerland, and is likely to go back to his French home soon. However he is still wanted in the US, meaning he still won’t be able to go there or any country with a strong extradition treaty with America, such as the UK.