Los Angeles prosecutors have asked Poland to extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States for charges of having sex with a minor dating back to 1977, a spokesman for the prosecutor general told The Associated Press.
Facing jail time after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, Polanski fled the country in 1978 and has lived in France ever since, according to The Guardian.
Extradition requests are being sent to Poland because Polanski has been traveling to Krakow in preparation for his film "An Officer and a Spy."
The U.S. attempted to have Polanski, 81, extradited in October 2014 by filing an arrest warrant when he traveled to Warsaw. Polish authorities picked the filmmaker up for questioning, but did not place him under arrest.
One of Polanski's Polish lawyers, Jerzy Stachowicz, said Wednesday that his legal team would challenge the extradition request, telling Reuters, "In our view no new circumstances have arisen which could lead to a change in the decision by the prosecutor's office in October."
Polanski faced extradition in 2009 when he was arrested during a visit to Switzerland for a film festival. The director spent 290 days in jail or under house arrest while Swedish authorities considered the case, but was eventually released with no charge, the AP reported.
In December 2014, he attempted to have the original case dismissed, claiming a judge acted inappropriately by discussing the case with journalists and lawyers as it was ongoing, but a judge ruled that because Polanski was a fugitive, his case could not be thrown out, reported The Guardian.
Polanski described his reasons for fleeing the U.S. in a 2013 Vanity Fair interview: "It was such a shock to learn that it's not finished, after they let you out of prison," he said, referring to the 42 days he served behind bars as part of the plea bargain.
"Free! With your bundle under your arm, with the lawyer waiting for you outside; standing there, in your mind it's all over, it's finished. And then the judge changed his mind. And I have to go back to prison, and nobody knows how long. I just could not go through that."
