Bid to arrest Polanski angers Polish rulers

An adviser to the Polish president accused US authorities yesterday of "absolute ignorance" in seeking the arrest of film director Roman Polanski, a Holocaust survivor, while he was in Poland last week for the opening of a Jewish history museum.

The comments underline the dilemma of Poland in the face of continued attempts by the US to seek Polanski’s arrest on 1977 charges of having sex with a minor.

Poland is a close US ally. However, the Polish political class has shown a strong aversion to extraditing the Oscar-winning Polish-French filmmaker, who is admired as a representative of Polish culture.