1977 sex crime sees Polanksi interviewed again

Polish prosecutors said they had interviewed film-maker Roman Polanski over a US extradition request over a 1977 sex crime conviction, but decided not to detain him, the Polish state news agency reported.

The US asked the Polish prosecutor general to hold the 81-year-old director until he could be extradited, Polish justice ministry spokesman Mateusz Martyniuk said.

But prosecutors in Krakow, released him after questioning. Polanski had presented himself at the district prosecutor’s office in the southern Polish city of Krakow where he was questioned over the request, PAP news-agency quoted prosecution spokesman Martyniuk as saying.

“Roman Polanski stated that he is putting himself at the disposal of the prosecutor’s office in this case, and gave his place of residence,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.

“In connection with this, the prosecutor deemed it not necessary to proceed with the arrest of Roman Polanski in relation to the possible request for his extradition.”

Polanski’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Polanski, director of classics including as Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, is planning to shoot a film in Krakow, a city where he spent part of his childhood.

He pleaded guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with Samantha Geimer, 13, in a photoshoot in LA, fuelled by champagne and drugs. Polanski served 42 days in jail as part of a 90-day plea bargain in 1977. He fled the US the year after, believing the judge hearing his case could over-rule the deal and put him in jail for years.

In 2009, Polanski was arrested in the Swiss city of Zurich on a 31-year-old US warrant and placed under house arrest. He was freed in 2010 after Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to the US as under Polish law too much time had passed since the offences.

Last year Geimer, now 51, said she harbours no hate for her attacker: “My family never asked that Polanski be punished. We just wanted the legal machine to stop.”