Results tagged “switzerland”

Roman Polanski's lawyer told Swiss newspapers that the acclaimed and controversial filmmaker is not in great shape. Herve Temine visited the 76-year-old, who has been in Swiss custody since September 26, and said to one paper, "I found him to be tired and depressed," and told another, "Roman Polanski...seemed very dejected when I visited him. Polanski was in an unsettled state of mind." Earlier this week, the Swiss authorities denied his request for bail.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski will have to cool his heels in a Swiss jail for a little while longer, because his request that he be released from prison was denied. Folco Galli, a spokesman for the Federal Office of Justice in Bern, said, "We are still persuaded that there is still a danger that he will escape, and that liberation on bail could not guarantee his presence through the extradition proceedings."

After the French Foreign Minister denounced the Swiss arrest—by way of U.S. arrest warrant for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old— of filmmaker Roman Polanski by saying, "In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face," now the French government has offered a more measured view. According to Arts Beat, a French government spokesman said, "Roman Polanski is neither above or below the law... We have a judicial proceeding underway that is a serious affair, the rape of a minor, for which the American and Swiss justice systems are carrying on their work."

Film director Roman Polanski, who fled the U.S. in 1978 after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old, was arrested in Switzerland, where he was scheduled to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The 76-year-old was taken into custody at his hotel.