Switzerland arrests Polanski for the LAPD after 30 years

[Winner]

This isn't a matter of age of consent here...it isn't like these two were lovers or something. He raped her. It would be wrong if she was 13 or 30. There is nothing medieval about wanting to punish a rapist. I'm actually a little alarmed that people are defending him.

Who has said that rape is OK? Nobody. As for me, I am only opposed to his extradition to the US and generally against reopening the case 30 years after the alleged crime happened. It should have been done decades ago and probably could have if the US consented to transferring the case to France.

Wiki:

On February 1, 1978, Polanski fled to London, where he maintained residency. A day later he traveled on to France, where he held citizenship, avoiding the risk of extradition to the U.S. by Britain. Consistent with its extradition treaty with the United States, France can refuse to extradite its own citizens. An extradition request later filed by U.S. officials was denied. The United States government can request that Polanski be prosecuted on the California charges by the French authorities.[33]

Why hasn't it done it?

 

[Evie]

On the one hand, Polanski was clearly in the wrong, and should be, or better yet, have been jailed years ago.

On the other hand, one has to inquire wetter the LAPD considers it business as usual to track international movement of people thirty years after the crime in order to snag them at the first sliver of an opportunity, or if they just do it in very special cases. If the later, that's not justice so much as it's pretend justice. (On the flip side, one has to wonder whether France and others would have been so opposed to extraditing Joe the Plumber, rapist (with French citizenship) as opposed to Roman Polanski, rapist).

As for the Zurich festival, and Switzerland in general, one gets the sense that they just shot themselves in the foot with the artistic community. This reek of the Swiss police setting up a trap, and selling out to Americans; and neither of these are particularly popular, whatever the specific merits of the case.

 

[Shadylookin]

Hard to feel sorry for a guy that drugged raped a kid. It's not really a small indiscretion that you can just turn a blind eye to.

 

[mitsho]

I think the extradition laws between the US and France are fairly limited. I mean nearly all the French ministers have commented on how surprised they are, so they probably weren't keen on doing it thirty years ago either.

They nabbed him in Switzerland because they couldn't do it in France.

And besides that, which country extradits its own citizens? There are provisions in these kind of treaties ;-)

I just read somewhere that actually that it is not at all clear wether Polanski will be extradited to the US. First, the Swiss juridcial system has to work and he can appeal to the topmost level if he wants. Secondly, apparently the Swiss "international extradition treaty" law says that Switzerland doesn't extradite if the carrying out of the sentence would be ruled out by Swiss Law due to lapse of time.

Of course, the thing is much more complicated. Anyways it could go on for quite some time before something is done.

 

[Winner]

So to clarify, you believe the girl was telling the truth about the sex, but not about anything else?

Winner, you've taken a legitimate argument for a lower age of consent and turned into a ludicrous parody of yourself over a barely related case.

The only strawman I see in this thread is your rather bizarre accusation that I'm somehow against you because you're an atheist. Come on Winner, this isn't hard - rape, especially of children, is bad. You don't need to believe in Jesus to think this.

I'd like to personally endorse that statement.

Can you even read what I am writing?

Fact 1: he was not convicted of rape - I guess you never heard about "innocent until found guilty"
Fact 2: he only pleaded guilty on the charge of having a sex with a minor
Fact 3: he faced a life in prison sentence in the US
Fact 4: he's a French citizen and France doesn't extratite its citizens
Probably a fact: the US didn't ask France to prosecute him in France

Conclusion: you're talking bullcrap and you're accusing me of things I didn't say nor supported.

So again, take your strawmans and shove them.

 

[civ_king]

Can you even read what I am writing?

Fact 1: he was not convicted of rape - I guess you never heard about "innocent until found guilty"
Fact 2: he only pleaded guilty on the charge of having a sex with a minor
Fact 3: he faced a life in prison sentence in the US
Fact 4: he's a French citizen and France doesn't extratite its citizens
Probably a fact: the US didn't ask France to prosecute him in France

Conclusion: you're talking bullcrap and you're accusing me of things I didn't say nor supported.

So again, take your strawmans and shove them.

Fact 5: it was declared a mistrial...

 

[Cutlass]

I'm just still a bit confused about why it's taken so long and being pursued now.

 

[Shylock]

Why do this now? Sounds like they want to bring attention away from something important.

 

[Gilder]

Why do this now? Sounds like they want to bring attention away from something important.

Maybe all of Gaddafi's accusations against them are true?

 

[bathsheba666]

Does the US allow its citizens to be extradited to face charges overseas?

In practice? as well as theory?

In the past I'm sure I've seen the suggestion on these boards that we can always invade, if we feel brave enough...

Unsure if that's just normal high spirits, or has its roots in actual practice.

 

[Shadylookin]

Does the US allow its citizens to be extradited to face charges overseas?

In practice? as well as theory?

In the past I'm sure I've seen the suggestion on these boards that we can always invade, if we feel brave enough...

Unsure if that's just normal high spirits, or has its roots in actual practice.

We have extradition treaties with several countries, but I'm not aware of any of them ever asking for a US citizen to be extradited.

 

[El_Machinae]

Moderator Action: Thread closed for review