Polanski decision awaits Calif. ruling

Associated Press

GENEVA

Switzerland’s decision on extraditing Roman Polanski will be made after a California court rules whether he can be sentenced in absentia in a 33-year-old sex case, a Swiss official said Wednesday.

Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli told The Associated Press that a judgment on sending Polanski back to Los Angeles was still pending but provided the clearest time line to date for when Swiss authorities may close their examination.

“The Justice Ministry will decide on the extradition only after the California Court of Appeal has decided whether to hold proceedings in absentia,” Galli said. “This action allows the extradition process to adapt to the U.S. proceedings.”

Galli’s statement adds even more weight to an upcoming verdict by California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.

If it grants Polanski’s request to be sentenced in absentia, it could mean that the 76-year-old director avoids a forced return to the United States. The Swiss won’t extradite him unless he is given a sentence longer than six months.

But rejection from the California court might mean that time has run out for Polanski, who fled the United States in 1978 after admitting to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The Swiss arrested him Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime-achievement award from a film festival and imprisoned him for more than two months before moving him to house arrest at his chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad.

Polanski has lived in France since he fled the U.S. in 1978 on the day he was to be sentenced.