As the Washington Free Beacon’s Alex Griswold tweeted Thursday, Harvey Weinstein’s opinion piece defending convicted child rapist Roman Polanksi “makes a lot more sense now.”
https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/916018192618868742
In September 2009, Weinstein asserted Polanski “served his times and must be freed,” upon returning to the U.S, if sanctioned by the federal government.
Weinstein wrote in the Independent UK:
Roman Polanski is a man who cares deeply about his art and its place in this world. What happened to him on his incredible path is filled with tragedy, and most men would have collapsed. Instead, he became a great artist and continues to make great films. I was with him the day he won the Legion of Honour in France, which was a spectacular day. I remember the incredible love and affection that people have for him.
Now Thierry Frémaux, the director of the Cannes film festival, and I are calling on every US filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the US, where he could face life in jail.
Whatever you think about the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time. A deal was made with the judge, and the deal is not being honoured. The theory going around is that the reason Switzerland cooperated and acted on a longstanding extradition order with the United States this time was because of their own troubles in the financial crisis.
The embattled producer then called on the U.S. government to “act swiftly,” and expressed outrage that a Holocaust survivor would be treated in such manner.
Click here to read the rest of Weinstein’s piece.
The LA Times details Polanski’s rape case:
In March 1977, the director, then 44, was arrested on suspicion of drugging and raping Samantha Gailey, then 13, at a party at Jack Nicholson’s house three days after “Chinatown” was released.
As part of an “open plea” deal struck later that year, he admitted having sex with the teen and agreed to undergo 90 days of psychiatric evaluation at a state prison. He was released after serving 42 days. Prison officials advised the judge that test results showed his sentence should not include additional incarceration.
However, a day before sentencing in early 1978, Polanski fled the country to avoid what he feared would be serious prison time if the judge — who was under intense scrutiny at the time — decided to ignore the plea arrangement. He has lived in France, which does not extradite its citizens, as well as Poland and Switzerland.
