A Polish court today ruled against extraditing to the United States Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty in 1977 to raping a 13-year-old girl but left the country before sentencing.
The court ruled "inadmissibility in extraditing Polish-French citizen Roman Polanski to the US," Judge Dariusz Mazur said at the court in the southern city of Krakow.
The decision in favour of the 82-year-old director of "The Pianist", "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" can still be appealed, court spokeswoman Beata Gorszczyk said today.
"The case would then be sent to a higher court, which could uphold the regional court's decision, overturn it or send it back for retrial," she told AFP.
Polanski was in Krakow but did not attend the open court hearing "because of emotional reasons", his lawyer Jan Olszewski said earlier.
Local media reported that Polanski had been waiting for the verdict from aboard a plane at Krakow airport.
If the Polish prosecutor's office -- which is representing the US side -- decides to appeal and the extradition is ultimately cleared at the court level, then Poland's justice ministry would still have the final say.
A former justice minister and close ally of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that won Sunday's general election, said he backed extraditing Polanski.
"Paedophilia is an evil that must be pursued," said Zbigniew Ziobro, justice minister in the 2005-2007 PiS government.
"We should allow Polanski's extradition. We can't shield anyone from taking responsibility for an act as despicable as abusing a minor."
Kaczynski himself said earlier this month that he "rejected the idea of pardoning someone simply because he is an eminent, world-renowned director.
