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Director Polanski wants to return to US: reports

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 17.02.2017 10:26
Polish-French film director Roman Polanski wants to return to the United States if he receives a guarantee that will not be arrested there over the statutory rape of an underage girl, his lawyer has said.
Roman Polanski. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Georges BiardRoman Polanski. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Georges Biard

The award-winning director, 83, has been wanted by the US authorities for some 40 years over a case dating back to 1977.

His lawyer Harland Braun wants to reach a plea deal in Polanski’s case, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

If there is a deal, Polanski could travel to Los Angeles and appear before a court without fearing arrest, Braun said in a letter to a court dealing with the director's case. A hearing has been scheduled for 24 February, PAP reported.

Braun was cited by the Reuters news agency as saying that Polanski wants to travel to visit the grave of his wife, Sharon Tate, who was killed in Los Angeles by followers of Charles Manson in a notorious 1969 murder.

Polański fled the US in February 1978, shortly before being sentenced for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. He settled in Paris, where he has been chiefly based ever since.

He was arrested in 2009, while entering Switzerland to receive a prize at the Zurich Film Festival, as a US request for his extradition had been freshly submitted. However, the Swiss authorities ultimately backed down after keeping Polański under house arrest for several months.

The director returned to France but he has frequently visited Poland, where he grew up in a secular Jewish family in the city of Kraków. (pk)

Source: PAP

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