Let’s Blame The Swiss For Roman Polanski’s Arrest
ROMAN Polanski is arrested in Switzerland and faces extradition to the US for having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977.
In 1978, Polanski settled in France, where he is protected by France’s limited extradition with US. The media round-up:
The Age: “The controversial Polish-French director, 76, was arrested on Saturday as he arrived to receive a special award at the Zurich film festival. The Justice Ministry said he is being held to await deportation to the United States.”
Anne Applebaum, Washington Post: The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski
Of all nations, why was it Switzerland — the country that traditionally guarded the secret bank accounts of international criminals and corrupt dictators — that finally decided to arrest Roman Polanski? There must be some deeper story here, because by any reckoning the decision was bizarre — though not nearly as bizarre as the fact that a U.S. judge wants to keep pursuing this case after so many decades.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: “Roman Polanski – a master of fear pursued by his past
And the law is sometimes stubborn in its refusal to change along with the currency of public opinion and media status. Polanski is still a fugitive from justice and the Swiss are famously a correct and punctilious nation.
Awards Daily: “Roman Polanski arrested attending Swiss Film Fest”
How is this case any of Switzerland’s business? Is this really the best use they can find for their cops and judges? Sorry, but this is the most out-of-sync Swiss Miss since Swiss men finally gave women the right to vote — in 1971. Apologies to our readers in Switzerland, but can anybody name their favorite Swiss film? Didn’t think so. I’ll give the last word to Harry Lime:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Channel Asia: Polanski’s arrest sparks shock, outrage
“The Polish and French foreign ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Bernard Kouchner discussed the arrest of the French-Polish national by telephone and agreed to make a joint approach to the US authorities, PAP reported.
They will ask US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton “to ask Switzerland to release Roman Polanski, detained pending extradition, and for her to envisage the possibility of a pardon from President Barack Obama,” PAP quoted Sikorski as saying.
Bangkok Post: “Swiss detain Roman Polanski”
Switzerland had no alternative but to arrest director Roman Polanski, Justice Minister Eveline Wildmer-Schlumpf said on Sunday…”Switzerland was under no pressure from the Americans… Politics has nothing to do with it,” Wildmer-Schlumpf told journalists in Bern. There was “no other solution” but to arrest Polanski, she said.
The Swiss – can we all agree that they’re to blame…for everything?
Posted: 27th, September 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (12) | TrackBack | Permalink
