Roman Polanski has said that he will cooperate with the Polish authorities in its handling of an extradition request from the US government. The Oscar winning director has been a fugitive from the US for almost 40 years over rape charges in California.
The US government asked Poland to consider an extradition order for Polanski over rape charges that date back to 1977. Polanski could simply avoid returning to his country of birth if it chooses to cooperate with the US, but he already planned to go there next month to film a new movie.
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Polish authorities did question the 81 year old filmmaker back in October. Polanski actually already pled guilty to the rape charges as part of a plea agreement where h would not have gone to jail, but he fled anyway out of fear that the judge in the case would not honor the deal and send him to jail anyway.
The 81 year old told Polish television, “I know that an extradition request has come, and, of course, I will undergo the procedure and we will see. I trust the Polish judiciary system. I hope everything will be all right.”
A survivor of the Holocaust who was born in Poland is also a naturalized French citizen. He fled to France because as a citizen if that nation he could not be extradited to the US. But there are still many nations where he cannot travel to for fear of being turned over to American authorities. This gets awkward within the European Union where each member state has a different policy and different treaties with nonmember nations on issues like extradition, but also grant all of the citizens of fellow EU members full rights to reside and work within their borders.
