In Polanski case, Clinton must side with girls

Posted By P.J. Aroon Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 7:27 PM Share

SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images 

Last week, Secretary Clinton was promoting a U.N. resolution to protect girls from sexual violence. Yesterday, she received a letter from the French and Polish foreign ministers requesting that the United States drop its extradition demand for Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was detained in Switzerland Saturday for sexually molesting a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977 (a crime to which he pleaded guilty back in the 1970s).

Clinton must protect the interests of girls (and children, more generally) and do all she can to bring this child molester to justice.

The legal process for extraditing Polanski is primarily in the hands of the state of California, where the crime occurred, and the U.S. Justice Department, said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley at yesterday's press briefing. The State Department's role will simply be to ensure that California's formal extradition request meets the terms of the United States' extradition treaty with Switzerland, Crowley added.

For more about why Polanski must be brought to justice, check out Eugene Robinson's op-ed in today's Washington Post.

Photo: SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images

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MODERATEWINGER

4:50 AM ET

September 30, 2009

I can't believe

So many people are siding with Polanski here. To me, he's a coward. To do what he did to a then 13 year old girl, then flee the country, is totally reprehensible. Roman Polanski needs to serve time for his crime, even though the now 45 year old woman has forgiven him. If Hillary's words about women and girls are to hold any true meaning, the she should stand firm against the people wanting to free Polanski.

 

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