Politicians back Polanski arrest

Swiss parliamentarians today backed their government for ordering the arrest of Roman Polanski on a US warrant for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

The parliament’s Foreign Policy Commission said today that “Switzerland as a country of law could not have acted differently”.

It added that “no special treatment for prominent personalities can be considered when it comes to crimes”.

'The Pianist' director Polanski was arrested September 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive an award from a film festival.

The 76-year-old director has been imprisoned in Switzerland since, but is fighting extradition to the US.

Authorities in Los Angeles consider him a convicted criminal and a fugitive.