Swiss to decide soon on Polanski extradition

The decision on whether Polanski should be extradited to US or not is nearing consensus.

Swiss authorities are reportedly nearing a decision whether to extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the US where he is wanted in a 33-year-old sex case.

Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung quoted a Justice Ministry spokesman saying,”it won’t be long” before a decision on the extradition request is made,Variety reported.

In April,an appeals court denied Polanski’s attempt to end the case. Polanski’s attorneys had been asking for the director to be sentenced to time served.

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Swiss authorities have said they have been awaiting the decision by the court on Polanski’s appeal before deciding whether to extradite the Academy-award-winning director in the 1977 case when he was accused of drugging a 13-year-old girl before raping her at actor Jack Nicholson’s house.

Polanski was indicted on six felony counts,including rape by use of drugs,child molesting and sodomy. He later pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

The 76-year-old director is currently under house arrest in his Swiss alpine chalet.

Authorities are seeking Polanski’s extradition from Switzerland so he can be sentenced on the charge. The director fled the US on the eve of sentencing in 1978.

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He was arrested eight months ago as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival. Polanski was put behind bars for more than two months before being transferred on 3 million pound bail to house arrest in the luxury resort of Gstaad.

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