Thursday, October 1, 2009

Public backlash against Polanski release from custody

















Dear All

There first was high profile calls for the release of Roman Polanski by the French government.

Now, they have worked out that asking for the release of a child rapist isn’t such a good idea after all.

They now have dropped their public call like a hot potato saying the 76-year-old director "is neither above nor beneath the law".

The move follows a huge public backlash against a campaign for Polanski's release, this has prompted several leading European politicians and cultural figures to refuse to join this obscene campaign.

Polanski is currently being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant, the charges relate to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

How can anyone in their right mind defend calling for his release, Polanski isn’t an innocent man; he admitted to the crime.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who appears smarter than his Foreign Minister distanced himself from release calls by asking his ministers to show "greater restraint".

Polanski is with doubt a great movie director but as Tusk says it is still a "case of rape and of punishment for having sex with a child".

That is the bottom line.

Some Politicians such as Denis MacShane have called on the Council of Europe to support Polanski's extradition to the US, Macshane is of Polish descent himself.

Epic French film-maker Luc Besson has also refused to lend his support, on French radio station RTL, he said;

"I have a lot of affection for him, he is a man that I like very much ... but nobody should be above the law”.

The Polanski affair brings something astonishing to light, the number of high profile people in the media spotlight you are prepared to actively support a paedophile. The names are somewhat surprising, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.

Polanski’s only hope rests in his lawyers managed to get him released on a technically in a Swiss Court.

If they fail then Polanski will finally face the justice that he managed to evade for 30 years.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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