Polish judge refuses to send Polanski to U.S.

Director 'very happy'

Polish judge refuses to send Polanski to U.S.

A judge in Poland on Friday turned down a request by the United States for the extradition of the filmmaker Roman Polanski, who is wanted over a 1977 conviction for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles.

At a hearing in Krakow, Judge Dariusz Mazur ruled that turning over Polanski would be an "obviously unlawful" deprivation of liberty and that California would be unlikely to provide humane living conditions for the filmmaker, who is 82.

"I am very happy that the case is ending," Polanski said at a news conference in Krakow after the ruling, the latest development in a 38-year transatlantic legal controversy. "This has been a tremendous burden on me and my family."

Polanski, a citizen of France and Poland, has been working on a film in Poland.

Over the years, prosecutors and judges in Los Angeles have said Polanski must return to the United States to face sentencing. His lawyers have said improprieties by the trial judge and others violated his legal rights. Mazur sided with Polanski's lawyers. Mazur's ruling is not necessarily the final step; prosecutors could appeal.

New York Times