On the run from the US for 31 yrs,Swiss hold Polanski for sex with 13-year-old

The Polish-born director fled the United States in 1978,a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. The director has asked a US appeals court in California to overturn a judges’ refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie The Pianist. Festival organisers said Polanski’s detention had caused “shock and dismay,” but that they would go ahead with Sunday’s planned retrospective of the director’s work.

The Swiss Directors Association sharply criticised authorities for what it deemed “not only a grotesque farce of justice,but also an immense cultural scandal.” A native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents,Polanski escaped Krakow’s Jewish ghetto.

He worked his way into filmmaking in Poland,gaining an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 1964 for his Knife in the Water. Offered entry to Hollywood,he directed the classic Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. But his life was shattered in 1969 when his pregnant wife,actress Sharon Tate,was gruesomely murdered by followers of Charles Manson.

In 1977,he was accused of raping a teenager while photographing her during a modelling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson’s house while the actor was away. She said that,despite her protests,he performed oral sex,intercourse and sodomy on her.

Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges,unlawful sexual intercourse,and was sent to prison for 42 days. Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence,but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain. Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time,Polanski fled to France.

The victim,Samantha Geimer,now 45,has joined Polanski’s bid for dismissal,saying she wants the case to end.