Roman Polanski detained in Zurich

[m.j.]

news.yahoo.com

AP – FILE - Polish-born film director Roman Polanski during the burial ceremony for French film maker Claude …




ZURICH – Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said Sunday.
The organizers said in a statement that Polanski was detained by police Saturday in relation to a 1978 U.S. request, without giving details.
Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski's arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.
Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment.
Polanski fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.
The 76-year-old director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."
Festival organizers said Polanski traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.
They said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but that they would go ahead with Sunday's planned retrospective of the director's work.

i love this man...wish they would leave him alone...
my all time fav movie director!

 

[BerlinRocks]

the man is hidden in France for decades ...
Why would the US justice leave him alone ? Why would he not present himself and resolve the case ?
If he has nothing to be blamed for, he shouldn't escape ...

 

[m.j.]

well he did escape so he could continue to work.
we will never know the whole truth, but he is very old now, and that happend ages ago.
this is a big deal for movie industry. i didn't post this to argue if he did or didn't do sth 30 yrs ago!

 

[*Bianca*]

I don't understand why he should be left alone either? No matter how great a director he may be...

 

[candlebougie]

I don´t know... I think they should leave him alone. Even the victim thinks so.

Samantha Geimer filed court papers in January saying, "I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception. "Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/27/zurich.roman.polanski.arrested/

 

[Fontenrose]

drugged and raped a 13-year-old, plead guilty, fled the country...

France should have kicked him out a long time ago. It's not like he'd be executed.

 

[Working Girl]

It is not ok for a 44 year old man to sleep with a 13 year old girl. I can't imagine what she had to go through. I also feel sorry for his children. Nasty little bastard. He pleaded guilty and was charged with a lesser crime. He still decided to run away.

He clearly needed to update his list of no entry countries to stay away from. I have no sympathy for him.

 

[Scott]

as much as admire and adore his work,if he plead guilty then fled,obviously he needs to face the music. is there a statute on this kind of case,considering the length of time? i mean if so,they could easily just dismiss the case or make him serve a lighter sentence.

and why on swiss territory is he arrested and possibly extradited and nowhere else? he has travelled to germany,czech republic and poland. is there some sort of extradition treaty/agreement the states have with switzerland?

 

[Fontenrose]

The statute of limitations doesn't apply since Polanski was already convicted in a US court...

Polish-born Polanski was not extradited from France because he has French citizenship.

 

[cate-lola]

If it's true it doesn't matter if it was 30 years ago because if he was inclined to do something like that once he would very likely be inclined again....no matter what age he is.

 

[CharlottefromCA]

from wiki

According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot. According to Geimer in a 2003 interview, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot."

Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the Mulholland area home of actor Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." Geimer testified that Polanski performed various sexual acts on her,[25][26][27] after giving her a combination of champagne and quaaludes.[28] In the 2003 interview, Geimer says she resisted. "I said no several times, and then, well, gave up on that."

I feel awful about what happened to his wife Sharon Tate and his unborn son, but he still needs to answer to the law. What i copied and pasted above is basically every model's worst nightmare..

 

[lunabella]

sounds nice and fair

 

[Danhat Ward]

drugged and raped a 13-year-old, plead guilty, fled the country...

France should have kicked him out a long time ago. It's not like he'd be executed.

Exactly.

 

[LUXXX]

Yes he's a good director, but the time has come for him to answer for his crime.

Still, it is fascinating that the Swiss have taken such bold action now, especially since Polanski has a home in Gstaad.

 

[MulletProof]

I knew it had to happen and it's all justice but I'm still very sad about it..

 

[m.j.]

If it's true it doesn't matter if it was 30 years ago because if he was inclined to do something like that once he would very likely be inclined again....no matter what age he is.

well, this is a whole another level....do you really think that something like this would happend if he wasn't that famous?
and, i am not trying to deny anything, but the man lost pregnant wife and unborn child.... you could say he wasn't able to think clearly.

plus, the girl, now a woman, forgave him.... why can't you?

i love this man...he's briliant.and very old.
he is the only diresctor ever that i watched and loved every movie.

 

[t-rex]

well, this is a whole another level....do you really think that something like this would happend if he wasn't that famous?
and, i am not trying to deny anything, but the man lost pregnant wife and unborn child.... you could say he wasn't able to think clearly.

plus, the girl, now a woman, forgave him.... why can't you?

i love this man...he's briliant.and very old.
he is the only diresctor ever that i watched and loved every movie.

It doesn't matter if the victim forgave him, if she fights tooth and nail to have him not face any consequences. He needs to face the law and set an example of this is what will happen if you r*pe and sodomize a child. He has already been setting the example to fellow r*pists that if you're lucky, you might be able to evade the law. And if you really lucky, you can do it in a life of luxury across Europe.

He did have to live through the Holocaust and murder of his wife and child but that does NOT excuse him r*ping someone. Lots of people live horrible lives and they don't r*pe or kill. Many murderers have grown up living a terrible life, should we be easier on them for killing someone?

****Edited. Please show respect towards other members, when disagreeing. ***Would you people still hold the same position if it were you or a family member who was raped, or if it happened to your daughter? Or if he wasn't a talented director?

 

[LUXXX]

well, this is a whole another level....do you really think that something like this would happend if he wasn't that famous?
and, i am not trying to deny anything, but the man lost pregnant wife and unborn child.... you could say he wasn't able to think clearly.

plus, the girl, now a woman, forgave him.... why can't you?

i love this man...he's briliant.and very old.
he is the only diresctor ever that i watched and loved every movie.

I always try to put into perspective if the girl was someone I knew...say she was your daughter, sister or best friend. You may feel differently. Sometimes we we don't look at celebrities as human beings who are capable of heinous acts.

In the end, he's being punished for cowardice of not facing a court of law for his actions.

 

[m.j.]

i am female, i know what being raped means. and it's the worst thing that could happend. but we re not the ones to judge him.
u all talk about examples... well, when heath leadger died no one said a single bad thing about him. he even got the oscar. and he was an addict. do u see my point? if they wanted to arrest polanski, it should've been done in total privacy, since it's an old case and he is really old. but no, media circus everywhere....
plus, i do not belive that he raped anyone.... i read a lot about it, since i am his fan since always, my mom is too, and i think it was once again all about media attention.... he is roman polanski. he could have any girl. why would he r*pe some wannabe???

 

[t-rex]

Someone being an addict is only a harm to themselves directly, r*ping someone is FAR much worse than harming your own body. Academy Awards aren't indicitative of someone's morality.

Roman ADMITTED to drugging and r*ping the girl. How can one read anything about this ordeal and not KNOW that?

You clearly do not know much about r*pe. r*ping someone has nothing to with whether or not you can have any girl you want. It's about power, not merely getting your rocks off.