Swiss 'Not in America's Pocket'; 'Proud' of Polanski Arrest
"Our
capacity to act was limited, because we can't treat people who are well known differently
than people who aren't. That is, in Switzerland, we don’t accept this."
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss justice minister and member of that country's Executive, the Federal Council: Why did she decide to arrest Polanski now - since the filmmaker has had a home there for years? The Swiss government now says it had no choice but to fulfill Washington's request.
BERNE: The discomfortbrought
about by the arrest of Roman Polanski at the Zurich airport on Saturday night
continues to spread. Yesterday, during a talk at the Diplomatic Press Club, Foreign
Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey didn't hide her embarrassment over the affair, and
in passing, directed a cutting remark at the federal police and therefore, by extension,
at [Justice Minister] Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. “On the legal front, the
procedure raises no doubts. But we could perhaps question the handling of the
intervention,” said the foreign minister, for emphasis questioning the
advisability of arresting the filmmaker while a festival specifically in his
honor was being prepared.
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Noting that the Federal Department
of Foreign Affairs hadn't been informed before the intervention, Minister Calmy-Rey
nevertheless stressed the limited flexibility that Switzerland had.
“Our capacity to act was
limited, because we can't treat people who are well known differently than
people who aren't. That is, in Switzerland, we don’t accept this,” emphasized
the minister, adding that the country “can be proud.” Finally, responding to,
"the links drawn by some” between the Polanski affair and UBS, Calmy-Rey
forcefully rejected the allegations: “We are not in the pocket of the United States.”
WAS FRANCE INFORMED?
What would the chances have
been of persuading the United States that an arrest wouldn't be favorable to
Switzerland’s image? Shouldn’t Berne have warned French authorities? The director
of international public rights at the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Paul Seger,
also stressed the need for Switzerland to fulfill its commitments. “We've reviewed
the agreement with the United States," he explained. "If a demand is filed
in good and proper form, Switzerland has no choice but to comply. Otherwise, we
would be violating our international obligations.” According to Paul Seger, the
fact that it was “an affair between Switzerland and the United States” made it
“legally impossibly to warn France.”
While the Federal Council
will discuss the circumstances surrounding the case during its weekly meeting
this morning, a question arises: how the process that led to Roman Polanski's arrest
was set in motion? The German press doesn't rule out the likelihood that the
first signal was sent from Switzerland to the United States. The director of
the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, Michael Leupold, confirms that a police station
alerted federal authorities of the arrival of Roman Polanski before the United
States submitted its demand.
For Federal Department of
Justice and Police spokesman Guido Balmer, it isn't impossible that a Zurich policeman
- noting that a warrant for the arrest of Roman Polanski existed in Ripol, the computer
database of information on wanted persons - may have alerted American
authorities of the arrival of the filmmaker. “In this case, however, Guido
Balmer specified that it was ultimately the U.S. authorities who transmitted the
decisive information concerning the arrival of Roman Polanski.” Namely: the time
that the flight from Vienna carrying the filmmaker was landing.
Nevertheless, for their part,
U.S. officials stressed that they never expected to be informed by Switzerland
of Roman Polanski's arrival in Zurich. “It was no great secret that he was
going to Zurich. They (the organizers of the festival) had announced it on the
Internet,” explained Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County
district attorney's office.
APPEAL WAS SUBMITTED
What's next? As announced by Hervé
Temime, Polanski's lawyer in Paris, the filmmaker filed an appeal with the Federal
Office of Justice against the arrest warrant yesterday. The court of appeals at
the Federal Criminal Tribunal issued a statement that, “a decision will be made
over the next few weeks.”
It should be noted that
Switzerland has obtained the support of the Vice President of the French National
Assembly. According to news agencies, Union for a
Popular Movement lawmaker Marc Laffineur was said to be “surprised” at the
“rather hasty” declarations of ministers Frédéric Mitterrand [Culture] and
Bernard Kouchner [Foreign Affairs] about the arrest of the filmmaker in
Switzerland. “Charges of raping a thirteen-year-old child are not something trivial,
whoever the person suspected of doing so is.”
