Poland’s Supreme Court upholds a refusal to have veteran Jewish filmmaker Roman Polanski extradited to the US if he enters Poland.
Polanski is wanted in the US in a case involving sex with a minor that has haunted him for almost 40 years. He lives in France, where he was born, and also has a home in Switzerland, but has often visited Poland, where he grew up and studied at a film academy.
The three-judge panel rejected a request by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro to overturn the extradition refusal and upheld the procedure and decision taken by a lower court in Krakow in 2015.
French-Polish film director Roman Polanski attending a press conference at the Bonarowski Palace Hotel in Krakow, Poland, October 30, 2015. (Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images/via JTA)
“We feel relief,” says Jerzy Stachowicz, one of Polanski’s lawyers. “As of today, the case is closed once and for all.”
Another lawyer, Jan Olszewski, said Polanski has paid dearly for what he has done, with all the films that he was not able to make in Hollywood and the 40 years of stigma.
“You can hardly imagine a heavier punishment” for a filmmaker, Olszewski says.
— AP
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