Polanski held in Switzerland over 1978 warrant
Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody in Switzerland after arriving in the country to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival.
The festival said he was detained on Saturday under a 1978 warrant issued by the United States.
Zurich police said he was arrested at the request of the Swiss Federal Justice Office.
The festival said in a statement on Sunday that Polanski had travelled to Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award, as part of a retrospective of his work.
They said his detention had caused "shock and dismay" but that they would go ahead with the planned retrospective of his work.
Polanski is wanted in the US because in 1977 he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl but skipped bail and fled to France before sentence was pronounced. He has been living in exile in Europe ever since.
The 76-year-old recently sought dismissal of his case on the grounds of misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
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