California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Thursday that movie director Roman Polanski should be treated like anyone else if he came to the United States to face sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Asked if he would consider pardoning Polanski, the actor-turned-governor told CNN: ”I would not treat his situation any differently than everyone else’s.”
Schwarzenegger would have the authority as California governor to grant Polanski a pardon, if asked, once the Chinatown director is extradited from Switzerland where he was arrested this weekend on a US warrant.
Polanski, who has dual French and Polish nationality, fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty in a California court to unlawful sex with a minor. He served 42 days in a prison, but left the country when he believed a judge would sentence him to years behind bars despite having made a plea agreement for time already served.
His lawyers have said he will fight extradition.
Schwarzenegger, the former Terminator action star who swapped Hollywood movie-making for politics in 2003, said he admired Polanski’s work.
He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview; ”It doesn’t matter if you are a big-time movie actor or a big-time movie director or producer. I think that he is a very respected person, and I am a big admirer of his work.
”But nevertheless, I think he should be treated like everyone else. And one should look into all of the allegations, not only his allegations but the allegations about his case. Was there something done wrong? You know, was injustice done in the case?”
Lawyers for Polanski sought and failed earlier this year to have the case against him dismissed because of alleged judicial misconduct in 1977. A Los Angeles judge ruled that Polanski would first have to return to California before he would consider a dismissal of the 1977 charges.
The arrest of Polanski, who won an Oscar for his 2002 movie The Pianist, caused a furore in France but industry reaction in Hollywood has been much quieter. – Reuters