It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
Filmmaker Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the US, the Swiss Justice Ministry has decided.
"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 extraditionary request," the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The announcement follows months of uncertainty over whether Polanski would have to return to the United States to face sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
"Considering all the aspects of this case – and in particular the extradition reques
Originally posted by anon72
Well well well. Seems like the Swiss got a little cold feet or someone in the US messed up Big Time.
Originally posted by hadriana
It was so long ago now, why bother?
He made the 9th gate- love that movie. He is worth more to the world free.
MiamiHerald.com
The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was accused of plying his victim with champagne and part of a Quaalude during a 1977 modeling shoot and raping her. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. However, he was released after 42 days by an evaluator who deemed him mentally sound and unlikely to offend again. The judge responded by saying he was going to send Polanski back to jail for the remainder of the 90 days and that afterward he would ask Polanski to agree to a "voluntary deportation." Polanski then fled the country on the eve of his Feb. 1, 1978, sentencing.
Based on references to Gunson's testimony in U.S. courts, the Swiss said it "should prove" that Polanski served his sentence after undergoing 42 days of diagnostic study.
"If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the U.S. extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation," the ministry said.
The Justice Ministry also said that national interests were taken into consideration in the decision, and the wishes of the victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago publicly identified herself and has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal.
Well well well. Seems like the Swiss got a little cold feet or someone in the US messed up Big Time.
Roman Polanski: no extradition Bern, 12.07.2010 -
The 76-year-old French-Polish film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the USA. The freedom-restricting measures against him have been revoked. This announcement was made by Mrs Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), in Berne on Monday. 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, although the issue was thoroughly examined. Moreover, also the principles of State action deriving from international public order were taken into account.
At the end of 2005 the US authorities issued an international search warrant against Roman Polanski due to sexual offence against a minor committed in 1977. On the basis of this international order of arrest, Roman Polanski was arrested on 26th September 2009 upon his arrival at the airport of Zürich and taken into provisional custody pending extradition. On 22nd October 2009 the US authorities filed a formal extradition request. On 4th December Roman Polanski was released from custody after depositing a 4.5 million franc bail and was granted house arrest under electronic monitoring in his chalet in Gstaad.
Refusal to grant record insight
In the framework of the extradition proceedings, on 3rd March 2010, the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) asked the USA authorities to substantiate the extradition request by supplying the records of a hearing carried out on 26th January 2010 by the public prosecutor, Roger Gunson, who was in charge of the case in the seventies. The records should prove that, in a meeting held on 19th September 1977, the judge in charge at the time had expressly assured the representatives of the parties that the 42 days of detention spent by Roman Polanski in the psychiatric unit of a Californian prison represented the whole term of imprisonment he was condemned to. If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the US extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation.
The request of the FOJ to supply the records was rejected by the US Justice Department on 13th May 2010 due to a court ruling, according to which the records had to be kept secret. 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. Considering the persisting doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case, the request has to be rejected.
The protection of confidence is a principle of international and national law To these considerations based on the extradition treaty with the USA it is necessary to add considerations based on general international law, that is international public order, according to which international treaties are not to be interpreted only according to their wording, but also to their sense and purpose. They have to be fulfilled respecting the principle of good faith. This protection of confidence is a general principle laid down in specific norms both in international law and in Swiss national law, and precisely in article 9 of the Federal Constitution. In particular it is necessary to take into account the fact that it is generally known that, 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. Moreover, although Roman Polanski was registered in the Swiss registry of wanted persons, he was never controlled by the Swiss authorities. These circumstances justified a confidence basis and Roman Polanski would not have decided to go to the film festival in Zürich in September 2009 if he had not trusted that the journey would not entail any legal disadvantages for him.
Considering all the aspects of this case - and in particular the extradition request which is not satisfying as far as the presentation of the facts of the case is concerned and the principles of State action deriving from international public order- the extradition request has to be rejected.
Source: www.admin.ch...