Film director Roman Polanski has lost an appeal to be freed from a Swiss prison ahead of his possible extradition to the United States for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
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The Federal Criminal Court said on Tuesday that there was a high risk of flight if Polanski were released on bail or placed under house arrest.
“According to Swiss law, detention is the rule during the entire extradition proceedings,” the court said in a statement. “The court considered the risk that Roman Polanski might flee if released from custody as high.”
The ruling represents another setback for the 76-year-old filmmaker who is considered a convicted felon and a fugitive by authorities in Los Angeles.
The court said Polanski could appeal against the verdict to Switzerland’s highest tribunal. He could also continue attempts to persuade the Swiss justice ministry to release him.
Polanski, a Franco-Polish dual national, was detained on September 26 at Zurich airport on his way to a film festival where he was to have been honoured for his life’s work.
The arrest was made on the basis of a US warrant for drugging and having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. He admitted the charge but fled before he could be sentenced.
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Swiss deny Polanski’s appeal for freedom
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Folco Galli, a Federal Justice Office spokesman, said no formal request had yet been received for the filmmaker to be sent back to California but that releasing him on bail in the meantime would not be appropriate. “In our view, there is still a very high risk that he will flee,” he said. “A release…
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Marina Zenovich, the director of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, warns that nobody has anything to gain from the detention of the 76-year-old French-Polish director. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Zurich Film Festival, Zenovich said she was “quite shocked” by the arrest. “It’s unbelievable,” she said. Zenovich, an American who…
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Polanski’s Paris-based lawyer, Hervé Témime, said the filmmaker was in a “fighting mood” and that he would appeal against extradition. Laurent Moreillon, a law professor at Lausanne University, says chances are slim that the director will not be sent back to the United States on decades-old child-sex charges. But, paradoxically, going before a US court…
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Roman Polanski has a long history in the cinema as both an actor and director, starting in his native Poland in the 1950s. His best known films include Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.