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What follows is the complete statement issued to the press by Roman Polanski earlier today.
Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum.
I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part. I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.
I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else.
It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil te entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States.
This affair was roused from its slumbers of over three decades by a documentary film-maker who gathered evidence from persons involved at the time. I took no part in that project, either directly or indirectly.
The resulting documentary not only highlighted the fact that I left the United States because I had been treated unjustly; it also drew the ire of the Los Angeles authorities, who felt that they had been attacked and decided to request my extradition from Switzerland, a country I have been visiting regularly for over 30 years without let or hindrance.
I can now remain silent no longer!
I can remain silent no longer because the American authorities have just decided, in defiance of all the arguments and depositions submitted by third parties, not to agree to sentence me in absentia even though the same Court of Appeal recommended the contrary.
I can remain silent no longer because the California court has dismissed the victim's numerous requests that proceedings against me be dropped, once and for all, to spare her from further harassment every time this affair is raised once more.
I can remain silent no longer because there has just been a new development of immense significance.
On February 26 last, Roger Gunson, the deputy district attorney in charge of the case in 1977, now retired, testified under oath before Judge Mary Lou Villar in the presence of David Walgren, the present deputy district attorney in charge of the case, who was at liberty to contradict and question him, that on September 16, 1977, Judge Rittenband stated to all the parties concerned that my term of imprisonment in Chino constituted the totality of the sentence I would have to serve.
I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie. In the same statement, retired deputy district attorney Roger Gunson added that it was false to claim, as the present district attorney's office does in their request for my extradition, that the time I spent in Chino was for the purpose of a diagnostic study.
The said request asserts that I fled in order to escape sentencing by the U.S. judicial authorities, but under the plea-bargaining process I had acknowledged the facts and returned to the United States in order to serve my sentence. All that remained was for the court to confirm this agreement, but the judge decided to repudiate it in order to gain himself some publicity at my expense.
I can remain silent no longer because for over 30 years my lawyers have never ceased to insist that I was betrayed by the judge, that the judge perjured himself, and that I served my sentence.
Today it is the deputy district attorney who handled the case in the 1970s, a man of irreproachable reputation, who has confirmed all my statements under oath, and this has shed a whole new light on the matter.
I can remain silent no longer because the same causes are now producing the same effects. The new District Attorney, who is handling this case and has requested my extradition, is himself campaigning for election and needs media publicity!
I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago.
I can remain silent no longer because I have been placed under house arrest in Gstaad and bailed in very large sum of money which I have managed to raise only by mortgaging the apartment that has been my home for over 30 years, and because I am far from my family and unable to work.
Such are the facts I wished to put before you in the hope that Switzerland will recognize that there are no grounds for extradition, and that I shall be able to find peace, be reunited with my family, and live in freedom in my native land.
"I can remain silent no longer because the California court has dismissed the victim's numerous requests that proceedings against me be dropped, once and for all, to spare her from further harassment every time this affair is raised once more."
Wow. Hiding behind his own rape victim. What a piece of shit.
I don't know the whole deal, but 42 days for rape just doesn't seem fair.
Ugh...
Why are we even giving a rapist full page to publish his jargon?
Because he can direct movies?
i guess you are all for the death sentence. or mob justice. afaik 42days was the sentence and he did do the jail time. I would rage at the us legal system to give such a low sentence and now trying to bend the law to right what they have wronged or for popularity. For a moment I thought I was looking at the comment thread in the Sun (UK).
@Torokun probably because of the same reason lame jerks like yourself are allowed to post their opinions on a message board - freedom of speech that is.
also this is not a rape, it's a sex with a wasted minor, and while that is morally reprehensible as well, why is everyone cool with the hundreds of 18 yr old girls who are getting gangbanged and humiliated on porntapes with their "consent", just cause the "law" considers it legal?!
at least polanski has something to contribute, it's the sheepish moronic mobs to which you belong to that should be disallowed a voice in the public space... go live in your democracy and be "free", retard....
For a guy that can "remain silent no longer", he sure silent about what he actually did and where this whole fiasco started from...
Some of the comments here leave me perplexed. Polanski stayed silent about what he actually did, momodotcom, because that is not the point of what he's trying to say. Regardless of how long you guys think he should have stayed in jail, the fact is that the US legal system screwed up and that right now, Polanski is right.
@siluro818
A drunk child = Consenting adult. Fact.
Also, he was the one who got her intoxicated.
If it were any other person, most cinephiles would have exclaimed justice is served. Woody Allen may get a pass for marrying his own stepdaughter whom he had known since she was a child, because we do not know whether they've always had a physical relationship since she was underaged, but not Polanski, man. We know for a fact this person fucked a drunk 13 year old.
Fuck him. I don't care how culturally significant and protected by foreign law he is.
Here we go again.....
"I Can Remain Silent No Longer."
"I Can Remain Silent No Longer."
"I Can Remain Silent No Longer."
OK, we f*cking hear you, you repeating pedo
I Can Remain Reading No Longer.
Polanski (conveniently) forgets to mention several points of fact:
1) that the sentencing had not occurred when he (illegally) fled the country;
2) that the "victim" (as he so aptly puts it) would not have to deal with this harassment had Polanski served his time and gone through the proper judicial channels to appeal any corrupt decisions at the time;
3) that the victim has received payment of civil damages but that she is NOT the arbitrator of justice in this country; and
4) that if Polanski wants to be "treated fairly like everyone else," then he should have done his time, just like all other criminals in this country who deliberately drug and rape children. Again, there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing. Polanski should not be given a free pass just because he's a(n admittedly talented) filmmaker.
Polanski (conveniently) forgets to mention several points of fact:
1) that the sentencing had not occurred when he (illegally) fled the country; 2) that the "victim" (as he so aptly puts it) would not have to deal with this harassment had Polanski served his time and gone through the proper judicial channels to appeal any corrupt decisions at the time; 3) that the victim has received payment of civil damages but that she is NOT the arbitrator of justice in this country; and 4) that if Polanski wants to be "treated fairly like everyone else," then he should have done his time, just like all other criminals in this country who deliberately drug and rape children. Again, there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing. Polanski should not be given a free pass just because he's a(n admittedly talented) filmmaker.
Polanski (conveniently) forgets to mention several points of fact:
1) that the sentencing had not occurred when he (illegally) fled the country; 2) that the "victim" (as he so aptly puts it) would not have to deal with this harassment had Polanski served his time and gone through the proper judicial channels to appeal any corrupt decisions at the time; 3) that the victim has received payment of civil damages but that she is NOT the arbitrator of justice in this country; and 4) that if Polanski wants to be "treated fairly like everyone else," then he should have done his time, just like all other criminals in this country who deliberately drug and rape children. Again, there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing. Polanski should not be given a free pass just because he's a(n admittedly talented) filmmaker.
Polanski (conveniently) forgets to mention several points of fact:
1: that the sentencing had not occurred when he (illegally) fled the country. 2: that the "victim" (as he so aptly puts it) would not have to deal with this harassment had Polanski served his time and gone through the proper judicial channels to appeal any corrupt decisions at the time. 3: that the victim has received payment of civil damages but that she is NOT the arbitrator of justice in this country. 4: that if Polanski wants to be "treated fairly like everyone else," then he should have done his time, just like all other criminals in this country who deliberately drug and rape children. Again, there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing. Polanski should not be given a free pass just because he's a(n admittedly talented) filmmaker.
Polanski (conveniently) forgets to mention several points of fact:
1: that the sentencing had not occurred when he (illegally) fled the country. 2: that the "victim" (as he so aptly puts it) would not have to deal with this harassment had Polanski served his time and gone through the proper judicial channels to appeal any corrupt decisions at the time. 3: that the victim has received payment of civil damages but that she is NOT the arbitrator of justice in this country. 4: that if Polanski wants to be "treated fairly like everyone else," then he should have done his time, just like all other criminals in this country who deliberately drug and rape children. Again, there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing. Polanski should not be given a free pass just because he's a(n admittedly talented) filmmaker.
Get me up to speed here, are we still pretending that we really care about the rape victim or are we finally admitting this is just about saving face?
Hype.Jones conveniently forgets to mention "other" facts of the case:
1. The girls mother deliberately left her alone in a house with two men, not known to either the mother or daughter. A case of child neglect at least, criminal abandonment at worst.
2. The girls was not an innocent sexually. This may not be a contributing factor, but it dillutes the indignation of those self-righteous advocates on her behalf that she was "raped". Inappropriately engaged with, yes. Raped? Likely not.
3. Gunson, under oath has stated the sentence had be served at Chino, but Judge Rittenband had reneged on the plea bargain agreement for personal publicity gains. Exactly how can anyone expect justice from a judge who won't even honor his own plea bargain agreement?
4. Polanski himself points out that he has been visiting Switzerland for 30 years without issue and now that the DA is running for office again an extradition order is requested?
5. Justice hasn't been served in this case in over 30 years and a publicity campaign for a DA election isn't going to provide it either. The California justice department has been embarassed by one of its own and a documentary pointing it out. A 30 year old witch hunt will not change the lack of justice for the victim, the state or Polanski back in the day. It's simply time to move on to current issues.
It's time to Close the case, declare Polanski's time as being served, declare him as unwelcome guest in the US and call it a day. This was once a criminal investigation, now it has become an exercise in political and publicity nonsense.
I can't condone Polanski's behavior or actions in the case, but I equally can't condone the California Justice system for it's abject failure in effectively and impartially prosecuting this case to an equitable conclusion.
"there is remedy for corruption in the judicial system in this country, and most of us are required to use them rather than unlawfully fleeing."
~hype.jones
Unfortunately Mr.Hype, the corruption in the judicial system in the US is not remedied and often never addressed through "proper" channels. There are countless stories of judicial imprudence and corruption, yet that is the fatal flaw in politicizing justice isn't it? So long as a person is popular with the mob, they can serve as anyone's judge or DA.
You can wax rhapsodic over the justice system but the majority of Americans believe it is broken and the Polanski case is yet another example of this fact.
He fled like over fear of being a pawn in some judge's abuse of power. Something he feared from his childhood in the Nazi Concentration Camps. He saw how far an abuse of power can lead.
This isn't some ordinary Joe off an American street. He saw some truly horrific things in Nazi camps in Poland during WWII. No one knows how much since he has refused to talk about it to this day.
His childhood experiences are not an excuse, but certainly a contributing factor to why he behaves the way he does and did.
The girls was not an innocent sexually. This may not be a contributing factor, but it dillutes the indignation of those self-righteous advocates on her behalf that she was "raped". Inappropriately engaged with, yes. Raped? Likely not.
Your mind is f*cked
Seems there was more:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7127164.ece
Polanski sexually assaulted me at 16, claims British actress