An award-winning rapist Roman Polanski,

by Mandhora Anim

Roman Polanski, born on the 18th of August of 1933 in Paris, is a Franco-Polish cinema director, producer, scriptwriter and actor, as well as a theatre and opera director.

The profile ofPolanski

Writer and director of some forty films, including more than twenty feature films, such as Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, The Dance of the Vampires, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Le Locataire, Tess, The Pianist, Oliver Twist, The Ghost Writer, Carnage and J’accuse. For these and others he has received numerous awards. But today we’re not interested in that. We’re going to talk about problems with the justice system. The Polanski case is a court case involving the French-Polish director Roman Polanski, arrested and charged in Los Angeles in March 1977 in a case of sexual abuse of a minor against Samantha Geimer, at the time 13 years old, drugged and raped.

He was charged with six counts: rape of a minor, sodomy, supplying a prohibited substance to minor, licentious acts and debauchery, illicit sexual intercourse and perversion. In exchange for dropping the other charges, Polanski pleaded guilty to illegal sex with a minor. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison and then released for exemplary conduct after serving 40 days. His psychiatric evaluation was favourable, but the judge, sensitive to the criticisms of the press and the pubic, reverses his decision and wishes to convict Polanski again. Polanski fled the United States and settled in France, a country that refuses to extradite its citizens and of which he is a national. In 2009, Roman Polanski was arrested in Zurich as part of a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between Switzerland and the United States and imprisoned for two months before being placed under house arrest in Gstaad. In 2015 Poland refused an extradition request from the United States. But how is it that we allow a paedophile to win a César award, in this case for Best Director with the movie J’accuse? 12 nominations, 12 rapes. It’s a disgrace, like spitting in the face of victims of rape and sexual assault. Polanski will most likely remain free and never pay for these acts, as with 86 years of age we can no longer expect justice to be served within his lifetime. THE CESARS OF SHAME 2020

Protest against Polanski