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The arrest on Saturday night in Zurich of the
Franco-Polish film director Roman Polanski, while
preparing to receive a tribute at the film festival in
the city, has sparked a new legal and political
controversy in Switzerland. The arrest of the foreign
filmmaker has drawn comparisons with the previous
debacle of the arrest, release and apology in Geneva of
the son of Gaddafi.
Polanski is imprisoned due to a lawsuit filed against
him by the U.S. over 30 years ago for having sex with a
minor. The arrest puts into question the application of
the law in an inauspicious moment, as the cultural and
Governments of France and Poland.
A trap in bad faith
His provisional detention and awaiting extradition is
seen by some as a cultural media trap the filmmaker at a
time that the director of the Federal Culture is
preparing to deliver a tribute.
The Swiss Association of Writers held protests against
the arrest of the filmmaker, and said in a statement
that “It is a legal scandal which hurts Switzerland's
reputation around the world”.
The Association of Writers and Filmmakers considers the
arrest “a slap in the face of all producers of culture
of Switzerland”, and suspect that this is a political
act of appreciation to the United States, which was
answered by the minister herself, Justice Eveline
Widmer-Schlumpf.
Bound by Law
The minister said “that because of an international
warrant of arrest dated in 2005 and extradition
agreements with Washington, Switzerland had no
alternative but to arrest the film director Roman
Polanski”. The minister denied that it is a political
issue. “It would be incomprehensible that a person who
is outside the law benefit from special treatment," said
Widmer-Schlumpf.
“Switzerland has not had any pressures from America.
Politics has nothing to do with this issue” she said,
and made it clear the country had acted correctly. The
minister explained that the last time Polanski was in
Switzerland, they could not make an arrest because the
authorities were aware of his presence too late.
France Protest
The French Government considers in turn the arrest of
the Franco-Polish film director Roman Polanski as
“absolutely horrible”, in the words of Minister of
Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand. The reasons for the arrest
of Polanski, according to Mitterrand said, is “an old
story that truly has no meaning”.
The minister recalled that Polanski is “a French
citizen” and a “filmmaker with an international
dimension”, adding that “just as there is a generous
America we love, there is some scary America, and it is
this America that just presented his face”.
An old case
The case began in 1977, when parents of a 13 year old
teenage girl filed a lawsuit against Polanski, accusing
him of drugging and raping a girl in Jack Nicholson’s
house. The filmmaker pleaded guilty to the charge of
“unlawful sexual intercourse”. Polanski was sent to
prison for “assessment” for three months, but only spent
47 days incarcerated. In late 1978, the day after a
meeting between his lawyers and the judge Polanski, on
bail, flew to Europe and never returned to American
soil.
The Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed last May,
definitively, the request from Polanski's lawyers to
dismiss sexual abuse charges.
Swisslatin / Stephen Hinch
(29.09.2009)
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