Poland refuses to challenge court ruling, will not extradite Roman Polanski to the US

Warsaw: Poland will not extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the US in an almost 40-year-old case after prosecutors declined to challenge an October court ruling against it. Prosecutors in Krakow, who sought the extradition on behalf of the US, said Friday they found the court’s refusal of extradtion to be “right” and they found no grounds to appeal it. [caption id=“attachment_2489570” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Roman Polanski . AP[/caption] The decision closes the case in Poland and means Polanski is free to reside and work in Poland. During the October court ruling, presiding judge Dariusz Mazur criticised the original US investigation, saying the judges and prosecutors there “seriously broke the rules of a fair trial”. “Had Poland accepted the US extradition request, it would have violated the rights of Mr Polanski and at the same time the European Convention on Human Rights,” the judge decided. After the judge delivered his decision, 82-year-old Polanski told reporters in the southern city of Krakow, “I’m obviously very happy that this case is coming to an end. It cost me a lot of energy, health…I’m glad I put faith in the Polish justice system.” The director pleaded guilty in 1977 to one count of statutory rape for having sex with a 13-year-old girl during a photo shoot in Los Angeles. With inputs from AP and AFP