ONCE AGAIN...:

Swiss Move Against Polanski Outrages His Sympathizers (DAVID JOLLY and MICHAEL CIEPLY, 9/29/09, NY Times)

As European officials and artists lined up to defend the filmmaker, Mr. Polanski’s lawyer said he would fight extradition.

“There is no reason, either in law or in fact, nor on the terrain of the most elementary justice, to keep Roman Polanski in prison for even one day,” Hervé Temime, his lawyer in Paris, said on France Info radio. In a statement, he added: “Taking into account the extravagant circumstances of his arrest, his Swiss lawyer is seeking his release as soon as possible.” [...]

The reaction in Europe on Monday appeared to be one of astonishment. Nearly 100 entertainment industry professionals, including the movie directors Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar Wai and Wim Wenders called in a petition for Mr. Polanski’s release, saying: “Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.”

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, said that for Europeans the development showed that the American system of justice had run amok.

While Mr. Polanski had committed “a grave crime,” Mr. Lang said, “he is a great creator and artist...."

...we see how prescient Mary Eberstadt was

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 28, 2009 5:21 PM