Polanski may return to US to face charges, lawyer says

Oct 21, 2009, 12:36 GMT

Paris - Film director Roman Polanski, jailed in Switzerland, may consent to go to the United States to face a 32-year-old sex charge if the extradition procedure drags on, one of his attorneys said Wednesday.

'If this becomes a drawn-out procedure, it is not completely impossible that Roman Polanski could choose to go and explain himself in the United States, where there are arguments in his favour,' Georges Kiejman told Europe 1 radio.

US judicial authorities have until the middle of next month to file an extradition request. According to Kiejman, if Polanski fights extradition, the procedure could take many months.

The 76-year-old Polanski was arrested in Zurich on September 26 on an arrest warrant stemming from his admission to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.

Polanski fled the United States after spending 42 days in prison for psychiatric tests, and has never been sentenced. On Tuesday, a Swiss court rejected his request to be released on bail, ruling that he presented a 'high' risk of flight.

Kiejman also said that Polanski had been hospitalized at the weekend because he was suffering from a 'painful hernia,' but had been released because doctors decided there was no need to operate immediately.