US wants Polanski extradition

2009-09-28 20:10

Los Angeles - Los Angeles prosecutors confirmed on Monday they would file a warrant seeking Roman Polanski's return to the US after the fugitive director vowed to fight extradition from Switzerland.

"We will prepare an extradition warrant and it will be sent to the Justice and State Department and it will go through the diplomatic channels," Los Angeles County District Attorney spokesperson Sandi Gibbons said.

Gibbons would not say when the warrant would be filed, noting only that authorities had 40 days to prepare it.

Polanski's lawyer earlier said the filmmaker had refused to be extradited over a 1977 underage sex case.

"He has refused the request from the United States for his extradition," said a statement issued by the 76-year-old director's French lawyer Herve Temime, two days after he was detained in Switzerland on a US warrant.

Polanski pleaded guilty before a US court in 1978 of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor as part of a plea bargain.

But he fled the country before sentencing and has been a fugitive from US justice ever since.
 

- AFP