Roman Polanski To Face New Extradition Trial Over Child Sex Conviction
Poland is set to take another look at the possible extradition of Roman Polanski back to the United States. If a Polish court allows the extradition, 82-year-old Polanski could face jail time for a child sex conviction in California that dates from the 1970s.
As previously reported by Inquisitr, a Polish court refused to extradite Roman Polanski last year on the grounds that the request was “inadmissable.” Now Zbigniew Ziobro, the Polish minister of justice and attorney general, has announced his intention to bring the extradition request before Poland’s Supreme Court.
Polanski initially claimed that the sex was consensual, but he later pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He then fled the country due to suspicions that the plea deal would be overturned.
Since leaving the United States in 1978, Polanski has lived primarily in France, but he has also made frequent visits to Poland, where he grew up. It was during a visit to Poland in 2014 that Polish authorities first agreed to consider the possibility of extraditing Roman Polanski, according to CNN.
Last October, a Polish judge considered and rejected the request to extradite Polanski. The judge in the case stated that sending the aging director back to the United States to face justice might lead to “unlawful deprivation of freedom… possibly in difficult and unsuitable conditions for an elderly person.”
Prosecutors in the case agreed at that time that Polanski had already served his punishment and declined to press the issue.
Now Zibrio, who has been a vocal critic of the decision not to extradite Roman Polanski, has vowed to bring the matter before the Polish Supreme Court.
“I’ve decided to file an appeal in the supreme court against the ruling in which the court decided not to extradite Mr. Polanski to the U.S. in a situation when he’s accused of and wanted for a rape of a child,” Zibrio told Poland’s state radio, according to Reuters.
Zibrio also suggested that Roman Polanski’s successful flight from justice would have been less successful if he wasn’t a famous director.
“If he was just a regular guy, a teacher, doctor, plumber, decorator, then I’m sure he’d have been deported from any country to the U.S. a long time ago. I guarantee that if there were no factual arguments on our side, Polanski’s status itself would not protect him from extradition.”
Since fleeing the United States in 1978, Polanski has continued to release critically acclaimed films, including The Pianist, which won the Academy Award for Directing in 2002. Polanski did not attend the Academy Awards to accept his Oscar, as doing so would have likely resulted in his arrest.
Polanski’s victim in the 1977 child rape case has repeatedly asked California authorities to drop the matter, but the United States continues to seek extradition.
“Every time this case is brought to the attention of the court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others,” Nancy Geimer, Polanski’s victim, said in court papers that were filed in 2009. “That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case.”
According to CBS News, Polanski agreed to pay Geimer more than $500,000 to settle a civil lawsuit, although it isn’t clear how much of that money she has actually received.
Roman Polanski is currently preparing to film a new project in southern Poland, so there is a chance he could be captured and extradited should Polish authorities overturn the decision made by a lower court last fall.
[Photo by AP Photo/Alik Keplicz]
