Polanski's defenders denounce arrest

An international row was brewing today over the arrest of film director Roman Polanski as artists and politicians leapt to his defence.

British novelist Robert Harris said he was “shocked and stunned” by the 76-year-old Academy Award winner’s arrest, while French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said the incident had left him “dumbfounded”.

The Franco-Polish director of classic films like 'Chinatown' and 'Rosemary’s Baby' has lived in France for three decades since fleeing the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

He was arrested on Saturday night as he flew into Zurich, Switzerland, where he was due to collect an honorary film award.

It was reported that Poland and France will make a joint appeal to Switzerland and the US for his release.

Harris said Polanski, who is directing a film adaptation of his book 'The Ghost', owns a house in Gstaad, Switzerland, which he has visited regularly while filming 'The Ghost' in Germany and there was never any warning that he faced arrest by Swiss police over the warrant issued in 1978.

The writer said the arrest was “humiliating” for Polanski and added: “It strikes me as disgusting treatment.”

Polanski has asked a US appeals court in California to overturn a judges’ refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

His victim Samantha Geimer, now 45, has supported Polanski, saying she wants the case to be over and is prepared to tell that to a US court.

Ms Geimer, who agreed for her identity to be made public, previously sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement.

Harris said he had been working with the director for the best part of the last three years writing the screenplays for his novel 'Pompeii', which was not filmed, and 'The Ghost'.

“One of the reasons I’m absolutely shocked and stunned by his arrest is that we have worked together extensively in Switzerland while he has a home,” he said.

Harris said Polanski spent most of July and August in Gstaad and added: “It must have been known to the Swiss authorities.

“If he was such a wanted criminal why did they let him own a house and travel back and forth freely?”

Although Polanski was not able to film in the US or Britain, where 'The Ghost' is set, because he would have been arrested, Harris said: “He has travelled around the world and there has never been any suggestion that this warrant was active.

“Something must lie behind this,” he said.

“It’s a monstrous way for the authorities to have behaved.”

Harris added: “It is not hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated and I hope that the Swiss authorities will release him as soon as possible.”

Harris said Polanski had been able to phone his wife, the French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, after his arrest.

'The Ghost', starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, finished shooting earlier this year and is due to be released in February next year.

The film is still being edited and Harris said he did not know whether its release date would be affected by Polanski’s arrest.

He said the film’s production team were “reeling from the news”.

Yesterday, Rudolf Wyss, the Swiss Justice Ministry deputy director, declined to comment on the case but said his country and the US have an extradition treaty dating back to the 1950s that is still in force.

Polanski was flying into the country to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival when he was detained late on Saturday night, festival organisers said in a statement.

His detention had caused “shock and dismay” but their statement said a planned retrospective of the director’s work would go ahead as planned.

The Swiss Directors Association sharply criticised authorities for what it deemed “not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal”.

Polanski, a native of France, was taken to Poland by his parents and escaped Krakow’s Jewish ghetto as a child, living off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

The French Culture Minister said he was “dumbfounded” by the director’s arrest, adding that he “strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them”.

Mr Mitterrand added that President Nicolas Sarkozy was following the case “with great attention”.

Polanski worked his way into film making in Poland, gaining an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 1964 for his 'Knife in the Water'.

He went on to direct the classic 'Rosemary’s Baby' in 1968.

His life was shattered again in 1969 when his heavily pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four other people were murdered by followers of Charles Manson.

The director’s professional success continued with the classic 'Chinatown', released in 1974.

In 1977, he was accused of raping a teenager while photographing her during a modelling session.

The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude sedative pill at Jack Nicholson’s house while the actor was away.

Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation.

Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain.

Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France where he has lived for the past three decades.

He received a directing Oscar for the 2002 movie 'The Pianist' but was unable to travel to the US to collect it.