New call in Poland to extradite Roman Polanski to US

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Roman Polanski at a press event in Katowice, Poland, 24 May 2016Image source, EPA
Image caption,

Polanski was in Poland just last week

Poland's justice minister says he will appeal against a decision not to extradite film director Roman Polanski to the US for statutory rape.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who is also Poland's prosecutor general, said he would make the appeal in the Supreme Court.

A judge rejected Polanski's extradition in October as "inadmissible".

The director, who lives in France, fled the US ahead of sentencing in 1978 after admitting having sex with a girl aged 13.

Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, described the ordeal of giving testimony against Polanski in an interview for the BBC's HARDTalk programme in 2013.

Media caption,

Samantha Geimar: Consequences of rape were awful

Polanski has French and Polish citizenship. France does not extradite its own citizens but the director occasionally visits Poland, attending a press event in Katowice just last week.

Swiss authorities turned down a US extradition warrant in 2010, after placing Polanski under house arrest for nine months.

Image source, AP
Image caption,

The director (right) was 44 when he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old in California