Backlash grows against Polanski’s supporters

The French public and government has turned on the campaign for Polanski’s release

FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 1, 2009

The clamour from Hollywood film directors and European politicians for Roman Polanski to be released from a Swiss jail, where he awaits possible extradition to the United States, has met a growing backlash in France during the past 24 hours.

Days after the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner called for Polanski to be freed, and President Sarkozy expressed his shock at the news of the 76-year-old director's arrest at Zurich airport, a spokesman said the French government had dropped its public support for Polanski following public condemnation.

Spokesman Luc Chatel said: "We have a judicial procedure under way, for a serious affair, the rape of a minor, on which the American and Swiss legal systems are doing their job." He added that Polanski was "neither above nor beneath the law".

The new official line on the director, who was convicted in 1978 for having sex with an underage girl in California but skipped the country before being sentenced, comes after Luc Besson, director of Léon, refused to sign a Hollywood petition calling for Polanski's immediate release.

"There is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone," Besson said on French radio. "I have a daughter, 13 years old. If she was violated, nothing would be the same, even 30 years later."

Popular support in France for Polanski, who has lived in Paris as a fugitive ever since the episode, has quickly waned - if it was ever there at all. More than 70 per cent of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by Le Figaro believed that Polanski should be extradited to face justice.

Four hundred readers of the French magazine Le Point have written to condemn Polanski and the French celebrities who back him, dismissing them as the "crypto-intelligentsia of our country" who deliver "eloquent phrases that defy common sense".

Polanski now faces several months in prison. The US has 60 days to send its formal extradition request and the appeal process is likely to last "some weeks", the Swiss authorities said.

Polanski's lawyers have called for him to be released on bail, possibly to be put under house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss town of Gstaad, but a Swiss justice ministry spokesman said: "Up to now there has never been a case of house arrest in such a situation."

FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 1, 2009

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When a child's parents are hauled away to concentration camps by the State, it is certainly understandable that when that child becomes an adult, he should be less than trusting in the goodness and benevolence of the State. When later that man's wife and unborn son are murdered, and the first inclination by many is to blame him because he is foreign and makes scary movies, he may be logically expected to become even more wary of those who would judge him. When that man then engages in a criminal act, enters the justice system and is the victim of judicial misconduct, it is fitting and predictable that he may assume the worst and flee. The American judicial system touts "Justice tempered by mercy". Lynette Squeaky Frome walks the streets while Polanski lingers in this Kafkaesque nightmare.

Posted by whipnchill at 4:05am on October 1, 2009

whipnchill: I didn't think it possible for one person to confuse so many issues so superbly. I was wrong, terribly wrong.

Posted by alan scott at 11:21am on October 1, 2009

With respect Whipnchill, the points you make are arguments in favour of Polanski being treating with mercy - they do not justify his non-prosecution. While no-one doubts that he has come through several horrific experiences and that these should be taken into consideration when he is sentenced, the drugging and raping of a thirteen year old child is a crime which society cannot ignore, even after thirty years.

Posted by Patrick Cusworth at 11:37am on October 1, 2009

whipnchill - I think you'll find that Fromme walks the streets now AFTER being sentenced and serving 34 years in prison. Maybe Polanski would be free now too if he had turned up to court and not fled the country. Like the veteran who thwarted Fromme, it's a shame that Polanski's now 43 year old victim has to suffer the media glare. I'm sure she would also have liked to put this behind her many years ago. She can't because of you. Don't blame the media. It's your fault. And could someone please tell me what Whoopi Goldberg means by rape-rape and how this differs from normal, everyday, it doesn't matter, it's just one of those things rape.

Posted by Steve Salmon at 1:35pm on October 1, 2009

Thank God that the majority of people are living in the real world. If for once we could see that just because because a person is famous they could not walk away but instead have to suffer the consequences of their actions it would be wonderful. "But he's artistic" his supporters say. Well to my mind the luring to an empty house of a 13 year old girl. The drugging and subsequent rape and sodomy of that 13 year old, and just remember what those words mean, seems far from artistic to me. Now of course he wants bail. Well, we saw how he honoured that last time. But of course if Whoopi Goldberg says he must go free then we must get right on it

Posted by Robin Glover at 5:31pm on October 1, 2009

@Steve--re: Whoopi--she now claims she was referring to the charge brought against Polanski, rather than the crime he committed. In this narrow sense, she was correct: he was charged with something like "unlawful intercourse with a minor" (a lesser charge) rather than "rape." Goldberg also states that she is not a supporter of Polanski. I haven't seen the full video, but if Goldberg's clarification holds up, then it was an exceedingly poor, but forgivable, word choice issue. Having looked at some of the grand jury testimony, it would seem to me (not a lawyer) that the more severe "rape rape" charge would be justified, especially when you consider that he was a serial pedophile. For Goldberg's sake, I hope this was the point she was trying to make as well.

Posted by Dan Bularzik at 7:31pm on October 1, 2009

It is fascinating to witness the initial support for Polanski now being replaced by by a more sober assessment of the situation.

Posted by Manny Goldstein at 10:55pm on October 1, 2009

It is good the tide is turning and people are spitting on the Hollywood movie frauds.

Posted by mukeshnana at 11:31pm on October 1, 2009

Double standards anyone ? OJ Simpson murdered two people, but with plea bargining the US Judicary sys absolved him !! The sys stinks, and with the Hollywood director's guild, Jack Nicolson, Charlie Sheen etc choreographing the release of paedophile Polanski what can we expect ? In 78, Polanski skipped the Country even though the FBI, State Police etc should have impounded his US Passport, like they do today. They should have alerted Interpol, and arranged for his extradiction back then. They knew here he was locating, yet nothing was actioned until now ? Heaven forbid. Show some basic justice, for once.

Posted by aussiechick at 2:00am on October 6, 2009