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Open Letter from Bernard-Henri Lévy protesting the arrest of Roman
Polanski (30/09/09 |
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Apprehended
like a common terrorist Saturday evening, September 26, as he came to
receive a prize for his entire body of work, Roman Polanski now sleeps in
prison. He risks extradition to the
United States for an episode that happened years ago and whose principal
plaintiff repeatedly and emphatically declares she has put it behind her
and abandoned any wish for legal proceedings. Seventy-six years old, a
survivor of Nazism and of Stalinist persecutions in Poland, Roman Polanski
risks spending the rest of his life in jail for deeds which would be
beyond the statute-of-limitations in Europe. We ask the Swiss courts to
free him immediately and not to turn this ingenious filmmaker into a
martyr of a politico-legal imbroglio that is unworthy of two democracies
like Switzerland and the United States. Good sense, as well as honor,
require it. Bernard-Henri Lévy |