Thanks Swiss justice system. You’re denying us the chance to finally close the books on Roman Can’t Keep It in His Panski. Just go back and quietly count your Nazi gold. Scumbags.
It’s not really Switzerland’s job to extradite him. He’s not a Swiss citizen or even a resident.
Hide your daughters, especially your young ones.
Swiss are saying the fault lies with the US authorities
Don’t know the facts behind this but there were questions/irregularities with the original plea deal IIRC. This may have something to do with that.
The Swiss said the German authorities were acting legally, there was nothing they could do but hand them back.
Huh?
So, if i commit a crime in the United States, and run to, say, France, does that mean France has no obligation to extradite me, just because i don’t live there and am not a French citizen?
Based on your formulation, as long as a criminal is willing to run to a country where he does not have citizenship, and does not reside, then extradition is effectively meaningless.
They signed an extradition treaty.
Does that mean they are required to extradite whenever the US requests?
He didn’t “run to Switzerland”. He was in Switzerland to pick up an award. In any case, criminals cannot run to countries where they do not have citizenship and do not reside; within a couple of months (or less, depending on the country) they have to leave.
Look, the point is that if I were Switzerland I wouldn’t want to get involved in a squabble between two other states either*
Yes, and the US extradition request didn’t meet the terms of the treaty.
**Switzerland shows its true colors **
…are they beautiful? Like a rainbow?
That asterisk in my preceding post was supposed to go with a footnote:
*no neutrality jokes, please.
In the Tribune de Genève, Switzerland Frees Roman Polanski, the movie-maker will not be extradited (12 July 2010), they say the justice department had two reasons for refusing the extradition request:
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Possible “defect” in extradition request: on 13 June 2010, the american justice department, invoking a confidentiality clause, refused to provide a court transcript of an interview with district attorney Roger Gunson on 26 January 2010. The interview would have clarified whether, on 19 September 1977, a judge had said in a plea bargain agreement that Roman Polanski’s 42 days in the mental health section of a California prison would be his only sentence. Therefore the Swiss Justice Department was not sure that Roman Polanski had not already served his sentence; if he had already served his sentence, the extradition request would be “defective”.
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Good faith: It was well-known that Roman Polanski came regularly to Switzerland since he purchased his chalet in Gstaad since 2006. For several years the US government did not request his extradition. Never before September 2009 did the Swiss government object to his visits. Roman Polanski would certainly not have come to the Zurich film festival if he knew he would be arrested. In “good faith” he could expect to travel to Switzerland without fearing judicial consequences.
Those are both bullshit excuses. Apparently a treaty with the Swiss isn’t worth the paper that it’s written on. Good to know.
Well, I for one am glad that we’ve been able to hear from an expert on international law, who is clearly fully informed on all the niceties and intricacies of the exact treaty governing US/Switzerland diplomatic relations.
Well, chalk this one up to an unintended consequence of the way that the United States justice system is increasingly a militarized police state. Many other countries at this point are becoming increasingly squeamish about extraditing anyone here because of the way that we treat our prisoners.
TL;DR - America! Fuck yeah!
Laches, which is what the second “excuse” is really getting at (not in name, but spirit), is absolutely not bullshit.
p.s. I have no doubt that the US cooks up as much, if not more, “bullshit” as you put it to prevent the extradition of US citizens for crimes abroad. Doubly so if that person is politically connected and/or otherwise influential.
Yeah, our celebrity prisoners are just about tortured. Rumor has it that the TV in his cell wasn’t even going to be high-def.
:rolleyes:
Fuck Switzerland. You know, in a raping, pedophelic sort of way.
This sentence tucked away in the Justice Ministry statement from the article linked above tells us all we need to know:
Switzerland has been under unremitting pressure from senior figures in the French government ever since the kiddy diddler was apprehended. In the end the Swiss folded, as was inevitable.
BTW I caught the brilliant HBO documentary about Polanski recently. The judge involved in the case really was a disgrace to the bench. Doesn’t excuse Pedolanski for a second though. He drugged, raped and sodomized a 13 year old kid. Then basically defended himself by saying she wanted it. He’s a shitstain on the undergarments of society.
What…the…fuck?
Here’s the actual extradition treaty. That is, in case brilliant legal minds like Rysto’s care.