The Daily Beast website claims a French political magazine has published a report stating that Polanski made the private plea for clemency.

The website writes: “In an astonishing act of backroom international diplomacy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from fugitive Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski to President Barack Obama last week on the sidelines of the international anti-nuke proliferation summit in Washington, according to a small and little-noticed article embedded in the prestigious French political magazine, L’Express.”

It is unclear exactly what the letter says or asks for but Polanski has previously acknowledged giving a Quaalude and champagne to a 13-year-old girl he then sexually assaulted.

Polanski, who is currently under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, is still facing the charges from 1977, as US authorities currently seek his extradition to America.

The letter, which is not directly quoted in the L’Express article, is said to suggest that the two months the aging director spent in a Swiss prison, in addition to the 47 days that he spent in detention in California in 1977, should suffice for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse he pled guilty to.

Source: Splash News

Prosecutors have reportedly asked a US judge to force movie director Roman Polanski to be present in court when he is sentenced over charges that he had unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski pleaded guilty to the charges in 1977, but then fled the US before he could be sentenced.

The director, 76, was arrested after arriving in Switzerland last September and has been fighting extradition ever since.

He has been under house arrest at his ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad after being released from custody on 4 December.

Now in court papers filed in Los Angeles County, prosecutors are urging a state appeals court to order the Oscar-winning movie-maker to return to the US for sentencing.

The papers state: “The spectre of a defendant sitting in a Swiss chalet while making demands upon the judicial system, hurts the integrity of the judicial system just as much or more as the revelations of 30-year-old charges of misconduct by a long-ago deceased jurist.”

The prosecutors added: “We… insist on the condition that defendant Polanski present himself to the jurisdiction of the Superior Court to accept whatever judgment is rendered.”

Source: Splash News

Fugitive director Roman Polanski has been spirited away to a secret location ahead of his house arrest.

Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said Polanski was moved from his Zurich jail to the hideaway on Thursday for “security reasons and personal protection”.

Galli confirmed the 76-year-old Oscar winner, who faces potential extradition to the US, was still set for detention at his Swiss home after paying a $4.5 million cash bail.

Polanski will be transferred to the Gstaad chalet on Friday afternoon. Galli said: “This doesn’t change anything in principle. He will still be transferred tomorrow.”

A California hearing on the case against Polanski, accused of unlawful sex with a minor in Los Angeles in 1977, will take place this month.

A lawyer for the fugitive film director, Herve Temime, had called the offer a “very, very significant” cash amount.

It was made on October 26 but the Swiss Justice Ministry found the “risk that he would escape was still too high”, said ministry spokesman Folco Galli.

An earlier offer on October 20 had included Polanski’s Swiss chalet in Gstaad, which his lawyers said could be used as security. It, too, was rejected.

Polanski, 76, now has the option of another appeal within 10 days to the criminal court. He remains in detention in a Zurich jail.

US authorities, meanwhile, are reported to be finally pushing ahead with their attempt to extradite him on a 30-year-old charge of unlawful sex with a minor. The victim has said she wants the matter to be dropped.