Swiss free Polanski; will not be extradited

Jul 12, 2010, 17:18 GMT

Geneva - Film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited from Switzerland to the United States and is now a free man, Swiss authorities said Monday, rejecting a US extradition request.

Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said in the capital Bern that all measures which restricted Polanski's movement were also lifted, and he was free to go anywhere he wished.

'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 Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police said in a statement.

Switzerland's decision was welcomed by French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand who said he was 'delighted for (Polanski's wife, actress) Emmanuelle Seigner, his children and his friends, who supported him with dignity and determination.'

Polanski, a dual French-Polish citizen, is wanted in the US on sex-crime charges for allegedly having relations with a minor in 1977. He pleaded guilty 33 years ago to unlawful intercourse with then 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. Afterwards, he spent 42 days at Chino State Prison.

The Swiss said they could not dismiss Polanski's claim that these 42 days constituted his entire sentence, after the US Department of Justice in May rejected their request to see certain records.

'In these circumstances it is not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty that Roman Polanski has already served the sentence he was condemned to at the time and that the extradition request is undermined by a serious fault,' the Swiss Department of Justice said.

He was detained in Zurich last September on the outstanding warrant from the US and has since been held under house arrest in Gstaad, outside Bern.

Widmer-Schlumpf's office also noted the issue of 'good faith.'

'Since he bought his house in Gstaad in 2006, Roman Polanski has been regularly staying in Switzerland. Nonetheless the US authorities did not file any formal extradition request for years,' the statement from her office noted.

'Roman Polanski would not have decided to go to the film festival in Zurich in September 2009 if he had not trusted that the journey would not entail any legal disadvantages for him,' the statement concluded and rejected the US request for extradition.

Polanski's friend Wojciech Fibak told Polish broadcaster TVN 24 that the ordeal had been like the script to a 'horror film.'

'I'm sure there will be great happiness, he will be free at last,' said Fibak, a former tennis star. He said the ruling was 'the only just decision the Swiss system could make' and that Polanski would now go straight back to work.

The 76-year-old filmmaker, known for The Pianist, Chinatown and more recently The Ghost, has been trying to avoid extradition to the US on the decades old charge. In recent months he also attempted, but failed, to be sentenced in absentia.

Since leaving the US over three decades ago, Polanski has based himself abroad, mainly in Europe, because of the outstanding warrants against him.