A prosecutor's office in Krakow says arrest of Roman Polanski ahead of extradition is "unnecessary" following a request from the US in connection with a 1978 sex abuse case.
Polanski, who is currently staying in the southern Polish city, went to the Krakow Prosecutor's Office of his own volition on Thursday.
The US application for his detainment was ostensibly filed as a first step while extradition proceedings are prepared.
The director fled the US to France in 1978, while being tried for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (13-year-old Samantha Geimer) and he has been a wanted man in America ever since.
“Roman Polanski declared that he will cooperate with summons by the prosecutor's office in this matter, and he has provided his place of residence,” said Boguslawa Marcinkowska, a spokesperson for the office.
“Therefore, the prosecutor found it unnecessary to request the arrest of Roman Polanski in connection with the possible future request for his extradition,” she added.
The office specified that he is free to travel around Poland, likewise to leave the country.
Polanski's presence in Poland drew international attention after he attended the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Polanski planning film shoot in Poland
Meanwhile, Polanski is still working towards shooting his next film in Poland, but that until then, he may come and go.
“At the moment, work on the film does not require a special presence in a particular place, so my comings and goings will depend on the conversations that I have with my future producers,” he told the TVN24 station earlier this week.
“But from the beginning of next year we would like to get to grips with preparations for the film, which we would like to shoot in late spring.”
The film is based on France's Dreyfus Affair, the most notorious miscarriage of justice in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French-Jewish officer, was wrongly convicted of spying for Germany in a case that unleashed virulent anti-semitism in France.
Polanski communicated in June this year that he will only go ahead with the shoot in Poland if he his security is guaranteed.
Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 after a US request for his extradition concerning the 1978 case of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
Swiss authorities ultimately backed out of the extradition, but Polanski remains a wanted man in the US. (nh)
Ewa Malcher
