Poland's PM against US Polanski extradition request
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
03.11.2014 17:07
Poland's PM says Polish citizens should not be pursued by the US for extradition, after the 81 year-old film director arrived in Warsaw last week.
photo - Zff2012/Wikipedia, lic. CC
"I think that Polish citizens, especially in cases of crimes where the statute of limitations has run out, should not be subject to extradition," Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said after journalists asked for a comment on the US requesting Polanski's arrest while attending the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
The US has been attempting to get Roman Polanski to appear before a Los Angeles court to face charges of sex abuse dating back to 1978.
The Wprost magazine has reported that friends of Polanski were negotiating his safety on Polish territory with the Presidential Palace for many months preceding his visit last week.
The magazine also writes that the unsuccessful attempt to extradite him from Poland means that Polanski is now safe when visiting his country of birth in future.
It is believed that the Jewish film director, who survived Nazi occupation of his Krakow home-town during WWII, wants to film in Poland for his new feature about the Dreyfus spy affair, which rocked French society in the early 20th century.
In 2009, the US unsuccessfully tried to extradite the Oscar-winning director from Switzerland, where he was attending a film festival. (pg/sl)