Polish authorities have received an extradition request from the U.S. to bring filmmaker and director Roman Polanski back to the country he had unlawful sex with a 13-year-old in 1977.
The latest attempt by the U.S. comes as Polanski prepares for his film “An Officer and a Spy.” The extradition request that preceded Wednesday’s attempt came in October, 2014, in which the U.S. filed an arrest warrant when Polanski traveled to Warsaw. There, Polanski was brought in for questioning by Polish authorities but was not arrested.
“Prosecutors will want to summon Polanski for questioning,” Mateusz Martyniuk, spokesman for the prosecutor general in Warsaw, said. Polanski’s Polish attorneys told Reuters Polanski was already questioned by Polish authorities last year and there’s no new evidence meriting Polanski’s extradition.
“In our view no new circumstances have arisen which could lead to a change in the decision by the prosecutor’s office in October,” Jerzy Stachowicz said.
At the end of 2014, Polanski’s lawyers filed legal documents with the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a hearing to close his four-decade-old sex abuse case.
Polanski fled the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer). His plea deal was part of a larger deal that saw additional rape charges dropped. Before he was scheduled to go to jail, the filmmaker fled the U.S. to France, where he’s lived ever since.