After 32 years on the run from the American government, Academy Award-winning film director Roman Polanski, 76, could finally see a resolution to his outstanding charges. He was finally detained in Switzerland where border officials acted on an American arrest warrant from 1977, but that move could lead to Polanski’s release.

In the seventies, Polanski pleaded guilty to charges for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (Samantha Geimer, 13.) After he fled the country, American investigators have been passively keeping tabs on him, waiting for their chance to pounce.

Polanski fled to France before he was formally sentenced and has been on the lam ever since. His capture now could lead to extradition to the U.S. but now that the American, French and Swiss governments involved, the whole process could be fuddled. Polanski could be released entirely, or his time served prior to the initial court case will translate to his sentence.

Either way, resolution will hopefully be reached in the exhausted case. There was a public outcry in response tPolanski’s arrest, as film stars across the globe called for his release, according to Perez Hilton. Incidentally, his biggest supporter is Harvey Weinstein.

“We’re calling on every film-maker we can to help fix this terrible situation,” said Weinstein.

A petition has also been launched, and signed by Monica Belucci (The Matrix Reloaded, Passion of the Christ) and Fanny Ardant (Paris, Je T’aime). Even French president Nikolas Sarkozy is said to be paying attention to the case, and Samantha Geimer, the defendant, is calling for the case to be dropped as well.

Polanski, director of The Pianist, Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby, was at the centre of another high profile court case forty years ago when his wife, actress Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s followers when she was eight months pregnant. Polanski’s mother was killed in Auschwitz during the Second World War, and he narrowly escaped the Jewish ghetto in Krakow.






Related Stories: