Roman Polanski, 76, was arrested on Saturday 26 September 2009 on arrival at the Zurich airport. This arrest was a result of an arrangement done by prosecutors in both Washington and Los Angels which came as a surprise to many people and even to Polanski himself (Michael and Brooks, 2009). Some days just before he was arrested, he was being closely monitored by these prosecutors while he was in Austria and they were even considering him to be in custody there (Itzkoff and Dave, 2009).
The arrest of this popular movie director was on the allegations that he had illicit sex with a young girl who was 13 years of age in the 1970s. In 1978, he had pleaded guilty (MacLean’s 2009). Since then, he had become a fugitive. This arrest raised so many questions especially given the fact that the Swiss had allowed the movie director to move freely for now over thirty years. Deciding to arrest him now was something quite strange (Anonymous, 2009).
Both the Polish government and French government have made an appeal for Polanski to be released. More so, several groups have signed a petition in support of Polanski. But the justification of the arrest is given by (Nashawaty & Chris, 2009). They agree that the Swiss have seemed to no longer care about Polanski for a relatively long time. In the Soap Opera at his time, they argue, there should not be there some conduct that seems to indicate that a crime committed is made less serious as time goes by through being persistent in asking about why the arrest has been done at this point in time. They further report that people should not forget that Roman Polanski gave drugs to a young girl who was thirteen years of age and then raped her.