Film festival: Roman Polanski taken into Swiss custody on 1978 US arrest warrant

Festival says director Polanski in Swiss custody

ZURICH — Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said Sunday.

The organizers said in a statement that Polanski was detained by police Saturday in relation to a 1978 U.S. request, without giving details.

Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski’s arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment.

Polanski fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The 76-year-old director of such classic films as “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie “The Pianist.”

Festival organizers said Polanski traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.

They said Polanski’s detention had caused “shock and dismay,” but that they would go ahead with Sunday’s planned retrospective of the director’s work.