Let’s Blame The Swiss For Roman Polanski’s Arrest
ROMAN Polanski is arrested in Switzerland and faces extradition to the US for having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977.
In 1978, Polanski settled in France, where he is protected by France’s limited extradition with US. The media round-up:
The Age: “The controversial Polish-French director, 76, was arrested on Saturday as he arrived to receive a special award at the Zurich film festival. The Justice Ministry said he is being held to await deportation to the United States.”
Anne Applebaum, Washington Post: The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski
Of all nations, why was it Switzerland — the country that traditionally guarded the secret bank accounts of international criminals and corrupt dictators — that finally decided to arrest Roman Polanski? There must be some deeper story here, because by any reckoning the decision was bizarre — though not nearly as bizarre as the fact that a U.S. judge wants to keep pursuing this case after so many decades.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: “Roman Polanski – a master of fear pursued by his past
And the law is sometimes stubborn in its refusal to change along with the currency of public opinion and media status. Polanski is still a fugitive from justice and the Swiss are famously a correct and punctilious nation.
Awards Daily: “Roman Polanski arrested attending Swiss Film Fest”
How is this case any of Switzerland’s business? Is this really the best use they can find for their cops and judges? Sorry, but this is the most out-of-sync Swiss Miss since Swiss men finally gave women the right to vote — in 1971. Apologies to our readers in Switzerland, but can anybody name their favorite Swiss film? Didn’t think so. I’ll give the last word to Harry Lime:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Channel Asia: Polanski’s arrest sparks shock, outrage
“The Polish and French foreign ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Bernard Kouchner discussed the arrest of the French-Polish national by telephone and agreed to make a joint approach to the US authorities, PAP reported.
They will ask US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton “to ask Switzerland to release Roman Polanski, detained pending extradition, and for her to envisage the possibility of a pardon from President Barack Obama,” PAP quoted Sikorski as saying.
Bangkok Post: “Swiss detain Roman Polanski”
Switzerland had no alternative but to arrest director Roman Polanski, Justice Minister Eveline Wildmer-Schlumpf said on Sunday…”Switzerland was under no pressure from the Americans… Politics has nothing to do with it,” Wildmer-Schlumpf told journalists in Bern. There was “no other solution” but to arrest Polanski, she said.
The Swiss - can we all agree that they’re to blame…for everything?
Posted: 27th, September 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (12) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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October 12th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
he is not a pedofile u morons!!!! plus that was 30 years ago…
let the man go…enough of this collective hysteria!!!!!!! its SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!
September 28th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Yes Gandolf. My point exactly.
September 28th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Her wishes should be respected; after all she was the victim 30 years ago. Frankly, I hope she brings a lawsuit against the DA who released the sexual details for all to read. She is married, has a husband and children and absolutely no excuse to deliberately expose them to something that happened to her 30 years ago.
It said on the news he is fighting extradition.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/13/roman-polanski-victim-urg_n_157391.html
Another fine mess.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
It could be a ‘political’ move. She had applied to get out of prison over the years and always turned down. When she first got brain cancer she applied again and no deal. All knew she would die from that brain cancer and she applied for compassion release to go home and die with family around. Turned down all the way. She had to die in prison. This legal move to bring him back here could well be from a strong but quiet movement from any members of her family and bleeding heart liberal groups who feel she had paid her time and should have been set free years ago, least of all kept in prison to die without loved ones around. Now they want him to pay for his crime.
She paid her price for the crime with life in prison and death there.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Yes he should be answerable and I wasn’t excusing him. Just wondering about the politics of the timing of it? If they had really wanted they could have caught up with him years ago. He has a house in Switzerland.
There’s a reason they’re doing it now and I doubt its because they care about either what he did or who he did it to. Polanski will no doubt receive a slap on the wrist if he is sent back to the US and once again the person who will suffer most is the original victim.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Paedophilia is a grotesque crime and no matter how much time has passed, what has happened in his personal life or how famous he is, he still commited to have sexual intercourse with a 13 year old child - in order to make her compliant she was allegedly plied with champagne and pills.
He knows what he did hence the fact he fled the US. It’s high time that this sick man was punished for he has admitted to doing.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, having done this once and so far gotten away with it, he may well have done it to other young children that we are yet to find out about.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Henious though the offence was, I’m still very aware of what happened to Polanski’s wife Sharon Tate and their unborn baby son. (she was eight months pregnant)
I think the vision of that carnage would skew anyones mind forever. I still remember reading about the horror of it all.
strange that they should go for the arrest the week after one of the ‘Manson Family’ died in jail.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I think that justice should be imposed and no one is outside the law
September 28th, 2009 at 12:40 am
The 70’s were a golden age for famous paedophiles, so it seems. The passing of time and any talent the man may have should not in any way make us forget that he is alleged to have had sex with a minor.
PS I thought the picture was of a young Nick Ross at first. Off to bed now, I’ll try not to have nightmares.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Surely it must have been the hidden hand of the Nephilim - exiled to the high, cold reaches of the world and now trying to get back into His good books via his temporal authority on earth, America. My money’s on a heart attack or a Carradine-style exit before he sets foot on the soil of the ooo-ess-ay. I’ll bet Polanski’s frantic.
A weird little country capturing a weird little man - I wonder if they’ll fly his body back ion a weird little plane?
September 27th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Did the crime…now its time to do the time. Simple as that.