Roman Polanski

[sam76]

WTF is with celebrities being above the law?

This guy drugs and sodomises a 13 year old girl and somehow expects to get away with it???

I don't care if he's the king of Sheeba - you do the crime expect to do the time...

As for his mate saying he made on little mistake 30 years ago and implying he's the victim in all this...

And as for France pushing for his immediate release...

 

[overit]

Yep people these days have a warped perspective. Different rules if your rich or famous or popular.

French support for Polanski stirs unease

September 29, 2009 11:24pm

THE French Government's backing for Roman Polanski has triggered unease as dissenting voices said the convicted fugitive sex offender should answer for his crime.

Government ministers and much of the France's cultural elite have rushed to defend Polanski, who was arrested on Saturday in Zurich three decades after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand both sharply criticised US and Swiss authorities over the arrest, which came as the Franco-Polish director arrived in Zurich to receive an award.

Mr Kouchner branded the Oscar-winner's arrest "sinister" and Mr Mitterrand said it was "absolutely dreadful" that the case should return to haunt the Oscar winner so long after the offence.

The French directors' guild and some press have piled in behind the politicians, and it was left to an association to defend child rape victims and a handful of dissidents to make the case against Polanski.

"Is it normal that a man in his 40s is having sexual intercourse with a young child of 13?" said Brigitte Bancel Cabiac of the children's aid organisation Enfant Bleu.

"This man may have indisputable talent but he is nevertheless subject to the rules of our society," she said.

In 1978, Polanski pleaded guilty in a Californian court to "unlawful sexual intercourse" - agreeing to a plea bargain after the girl testified that she had been drugged and sodomised against her will.

He did not wait to be sentenced, and fled to Europe. He now faces extradition to the United States, sentencing for the original crime and possible charges relating to his flight from justice.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a member of the European Parliament but expressed surprise that Kouchner and Mitterrand, a nephew of the late President Francois Mitterrand, had been so quick to take Polanski's side.

"It's an issue for the judicial authorities and I believe that the culture minister, even if his name is Mitterrand, should say 'I am waiting for the case to be examined'," he said.

Mr Mitterrand said on Sunday that Polanski, director of Rosemary's Baby and an Oscar winner for The Pianist, had been "thrown to the lions over an ancient affair that doesn't make any sense."

To jail him, he added, was "absolutely dreadful."

Mr Kouchner said: "This affair is frankly a bit sinister ... Here is a man of such talent, recognised worldwide, recognised especially in the country where he was arrested. This is not nice at all."

US directors Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese have signed a petition protesting Polanski's arrest but another prominent film-maker, Luc Besson, refused to line up behind Hollywood's show of support.

"I have a lot of affection for him, he is a man that I like very much ... but nobody should be above the law," Besson told RTL radio.

"I don't know the details of this case, but I think that when you don't show up for trial, you are taking a risk, " he added.

Asked about the film world's solidarity with Polanski, Besson said "everyone can do as they please ... But I know that I have a 13-year-old daughter and if she were raped, I don't think that I would agree."

Veteran far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has called on Mr Mitterrand and Mr Kouchner to resign, saying he was shocked by the support given to "this criminal paedophile" from "an over-protected cast in show business."

French media were divided on the scandal, with the Paris press portraying Polanski as a victim of a mishandled case, but some provincial commentators accusing the government of pandering to showbusiness.

"The actors and producers who have gathered to defend Roman Polanski have simply forgotten that there can be no artistic immunity against criminal acts," wrote Jacques Camus in the Republique du Centre newspaper.

 

[So_Cynical]

America is such a law and order society...watching the news tonight there's Polanski prob going to jail, even though the victim is well and truly over it and repeatedly tried to get the charges dropped...and then there's the military gunning down people in Guinea, and not a single one of the murderers will ever see 1 single day in jail....and remember Pinochet...guilty as all hell for mass murder and torture and let off the hook because he was 83.

To old to go to trial.....there's no justice in the world.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/peo...hree-trying-to-forget-past-20090928-g7x2.html

"The victim in the Roman Polanski sex case is now a married mother-of-three who has repeatedly asked authorities to drop charges against the man who sexually abused her as a 13-year-old.

Samantha Geimer, 45, was a starry-eyed innocent when Polanski asked her mother if he could photograph her for a fashion magazine at the Hollywood Hills home of Jack Nicholson in March 1977.

After plying the youngster with champagne and drugs and taking nude pictures of her in a hot tub, Polanski had sex with the teen despite her resistance and requests to be taken home.

In January, Geimer filed a legal declaration in Los Angeles formally requesting that the outstanding charges against Polanski be withdrawn."

 

[nulla nulla]

I find it alarming the number of people in politics, the media and the entertainment industry that have come out in support of this pedaphile.

By inference it would appear that these same people condone today the "date rape" practise of predatory males spiking young womens drinks, so that they are incoherent and unable to fend of sexual assault.

 

[joslad]

It needs to be resolved transparently - in a court.

If she doesn't want him prosecuted, as its alleged in some media reports, then let her stand up in court and state it so.

Either way, due process should be completed in the court room thereby avoiding accusations of deals made and favourtism granted etc.

 

[starwars_guy456]

"Fled to Europe".

That sentence gets my attention. Let the process of the law take its course I reckon, and charge him with contempt of court/breaching bail conditions!

-Edwin

 

[Out Too Soon]

It is sickening the number of ppl supporting him. What I dont understand is the 30 year wait to do something, he hasn't been hiding in Poland the last 30 years has he?
Anyone with a 13 yr old girl ( like myself ) is certainly not going to let this rest, it would mean I can't trust anyone famous with my daughter because they are above the law.

 

[Prospector]

It needs to be resolved transparently - in a court.

If she doesn't want him prosecuted, as its alleged in some media reports, then let her stand up in court and state it so.

Either way, due process should be completed in the court room thereby avoiding accusations of deals made and favourtism granted etc.

He has already been to court, he has been prosecuted and he pleaded guilty. He fled to France where there are no treaties in place with the States, before the sentence was handed down.

A couple of years later he then had a relationship with a 15 year old actress. He has been quoted as querying why should he be persecuted because he has a preference for young girls, and that 'normal sex' is boring.

What people (some people) are saying now is that he is too talented and it is too long ago to make him go to gaol.

Bollocks I say to all that. And what is it with showbiz people that they think they are all above the law! They are ACTORS, They play CHARACTERS and when they walk off the set they are not those important people they play anymore!

 

[joslad]

As I said, he needs to be bought back to the court and have it resolved. ie sentenced and do his time. Or if she doesn't want it progressed, then let her stand up in court and say so.

There should be no deals made etc. He should be treated the same as everyone else.

 

[dbcok]

If"n you go to town Chester,you have to pay the fare home!

 

[awg]

might be hard to wriggle out of this one.

substitute the name Denis Ferguson for Roman Polanski

 

[bellenuit]

Or if she doesn't want it progressed, then let her stand up in court and say so.

From what I have heard/read over the last day or so is that it is irrelevant what she wants. In the USA (I don't know if it applies here), it is the state (the people), not the alleged victim, that presses the charges. That's why you hear at the commencement of court cases statements such as "The State of California vs X).

In this case the state wants to pursue it, even though the victim wants no part.

(I've probably got my terminology in relation to the US justice system screwed up a bit, but you know what I mean).

 

[joslad]

I hope you are right. I want to see him locked up!!!

Hopefully his future cellmate "Bubba" has the same philosophy as him, ie "saying no" is not a consideration on whether or not sodomy is carried out in the cell....!