Polanski in court on extradition request

Filmmaker Roman Polanski has appeared in a court in Poland for a hearing concerning a US request for his extradition charges of sex with a minor, a case that has haunted him since 1977.

Judge Dariusz Mazur was not expected to make a ruling and scheduled another hearing, buying time to study documents that arrived this week from Switzerland, which in 2010 refused to extradite Polanski.

The next hearing could be in April or sooner, according to court spokeswoman Grazyna Rokita. The Oscar-winning director entered the court in Krakow with his two Polish lawyers. On the lawyers’ request, the court banned media from the hearing.

Polanski, 81, is in Poland preparing to make a movie about Alfred Dreyfus, a 19th-century French army officer wrongly accused of spying.

If the judge refuses to hand Polanski over, the case is closed. If he allows the extradition, the final decision will belong to the justice minister.