Talk about dropping a stink bomb. The Polanski letter, which is not directly quoted in L’Express’ article, is said to suggest that the two months the aging director spent in a Swiss prison—in addition to the 47 days that he spent in detention in California in 1977—should suffice for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse he pled guilty to. (Polanski is now under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland while authorities seek his extradition to the United States.)
Polanski’s letter also suggests that extraditing the Polish-born filmmaker (who became a French citizen in the 1970s) would do little more than feed the appetite of the American media that he believes just wants to humiliate him.
It is unclear what Polanski or President Sarkozy, for that matter, think Obama might be able or willing to do for a man who has acknowledged giving a Quaalude and champagne to a 13-year-old girl who he then sodomized.
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