It marks another attempt by the US to bring Polanski back to the country he fled from in 1978. The film director faced a jail term after he pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with Samantha Gailey (now Geimer), then aged 13. His plea was part of a bargain that saw other more serious charges, including rape, dropped. Polanski absconded before the sentencing, however, and has lived in France ever since.
Poland is receiving the request because Polanski has been visiting Krakow, preparing for his film An Officer and a Spy. The US made an initial attempt in October last year, by filing an arrest warrant when Polanski travelled to Warsaw. The director was brought in for questioning by the Polish authorities but was not arrested.
However, justice ministry spokesman Mateusz Martyniuk said that the Polish statute of limitations (preventing prosecutions in cases where a number of years have lapsed since the crime) “does not apply to US requests”, meaning that Polanski could yet be sent back to the US. Last year Martyniuk said that the director was free to travel as no extradition request had been made – the director could now potentially see that freedom curtailed. Regarding the new request, Martyniuk acknowledged: “Prosecutors will want to summon Polanski for questioning.”
One of Polanski’s Polish lawyers, Jerzy Stachowicz, told Reuters: “In our view no new circumstances have arisen which could lead to a change in the decision by the prosecutor’s office in October.”
Polanski has risked extradition before – in 2009 he was arrested in Switzerland when he went to a film festival there, but the case collapsed.
In December 2014 he unsuccessfully bid to have the original case dismissed. A judge in the original case allegedly discussed the case with journalists and lawyers as it was ongoing, and this misconduct, Polanski’s legal team hoped, would help exonerate him. But a judge ruled that Polanski’s fugitive status means that the case cannot be thrown out.
In an interview with Vanity Fair last year, Polanski described his reasons for fleeing the US. “It was such a shock to learn that it’s not finished, after they let you out of prison,” he said, referring to the 42 days he served behind bars as part of the plea bargain. “Free! With your bundle under your arm, with the lawyer waiting for you outside; standing there, in your mind it’s all over, it’s finished. And then the judge changed his mind. And I have to go back to prison, and nobody knows how long. I just could not go through that.”
