By Lee Pfeiffer
Law enforcement agencies like to say that you can run, but you can't hide when it comes to snaring fugitives from justice. The long arm of the law has just reached Oscar winning director Roman Polanski, who was arrested in Switzerland, where he planned to attend a commemoration of his career at the Zurich Film Festival. Polanski has been living in France since fleeing the United States in 1978, following his arrest for having sex with an underage girl. The messy legal battle has gone on ever since, with even the victim in the case calling for the charges to be dropped against Polanski, who had endured the horror of having his wife Sharon Tate and his unborn baby massacred by the Manson Family in 1969. Polanski has carefully planned his travels since fleeing the USA, avoiding countries with extradition treaties with America for the crime he committed. It's unclear why he made this potentially drastic misstep by visiting Switzerland. In recent years, Polanski has unsuccessfully tried to get the charges dropped, but prosecutors say he would have to appear in court to personally make the plea- and Polanski feared arrest if his strategy didn't work. A recent major documentary,
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, revealed that Polanski had reason to believe he was betrayed by a judge who arguably double-crossed him after Polanski agreed to serve a period of incarceration. The judge, acting under apparent pressure from others, seemed poised to break his word and sentence Polanski to additional prison time, thus leading the famed director to flea the country. The present status of his situation is unclear, and it is not known when or if Swiss authorities will turn him over to US law enforcement officials.For more
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