Crime

Polanski Arrested After 31 Years

Swiss officials detained the director in Zurich.

He’s been considered a fugitive by the U.S. government since 1978, and now after 31 years, Roman Polanski has been detained in Zurich on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski, a Holocaust survivor, left for France after pleading guilty to the molestation charge and had managed to elude arrest for over three decades. The Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby director won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2002 and was in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award when he was detained by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities. In recent years, Polanski sought—unsuccessfully—to have his charges overturned. Artists, filmmakers, and even the French Culture Minister and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are calling for the director to be returned to his family.