This happened under a Democratic president. Imagine if it had happened while Bush was president ... what the liberal Hollywood elite would be doing, at this very moment, the blogs, the posts, the newspaper columns denouncing Bush for politicizing an issue over 30 years old.
As of this moment, the only denunciations have come from France and Poland.
Now why would Switzerland arrest him NOW. Polanski has gone to Switzerland more than twelve times in the last eight years and never was he stopped. NOW he is stopped.
Anyone interested - look up Switzerland and tax and bank and US, using Google.
Hmmm. Political.
But Obama is a Democrat, it couldn't be.
What will happen is, the process will occur, he will be extradited or agree to return voluntarily, with backroom agreements. He will appear in court where the sentence will be ... and he will have to pay fines, perhaps labeled as a sex offender, ordered to report his presence when he is in the country .... and then a petition will be given to Obama (if it has not already) and a pardon or commutation will be given (depending on the outcome of the court trial).
What should happen is ... this should be dropped. Mr. Polanski has spent over 30 years exiled from this country. When he was last here, it was only 8 years since his wife had been murdered.
He has paid enough, and justice was done. He is not the same man.
Let's see what happens.
: )
Anger in France and Poland after Polanski arrest
PARIS, Sept 27, 2009
(Reuters)
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Artists and film makers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing the case.
Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "stunned" by the news, adding that both he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to see the acclaimed director returned swiftly to his family.
"(Mitterrand) profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life," the culture ministry said in a statement.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also issued a statement, saying he had spoken to his Swiss counterpart to demand that Polanski's rights were fully respected and that a "favourable" solution be rapidly found.
Polanski holds French citizenship and is married to French singer actress Emmanuelle Seigner. He has spent much of his life here since fleeing the United States in 1978, but regularly visits countries where he does not expect extradition woe.
Robert Harris, a British novelist who said he had been working with Polanski for much of the past three years writing two screenplays, expressed outrage over the arrest.
"I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in Gstaad.
"It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated," he said.
Born in Paris, Polanski moved to Poland with his Jewish family when still a toddler shortly before World War Two. His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, but Polanski avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the West.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
"I am considering approaching the American authorities over the possibility of the U.S. president proclaiming an act of clemency which would settle the matter once and for all," Sikorski was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.
Poland's film-makers' association also rose to his defence.
"We do not understand why the Swiss invited Polanski to a film festival, where he was to have received a life's achievement award, and then arrested him," said association president, Jacek Bromski.
"We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness."
[Bin laden - it took justice this long to catch up to Polanski, but the American system eventually did .... and you are at the top of the list, and not for molesting young girls - although we could add that to the charges.]
children
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