Polanski could stay behind bars for two years: report

File photo of film director Roman Polanski presenting his musical "Tanz der Vampire" ("Dance of the Vampires") in Oberhausen Sept. 29, 2008. Polanski was arrested on his arrival in Switzerland Sept. 26, 2009, at the request of U.S. authorities for a 1978 warrant. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski could face up to two years imprisonment if he was sent back to the United States for trial, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Swiss officials said in a statement earlier Friday morning that U.S. officials formally asked Swiss officials to extradite the famed director, 76, to Los Angeles, where he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Los Angeles County prosecutors have refused to say what kind of sentence they would seek for Polanski if he returns to Los Angeles, and they could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest development, the report said.

Polanski, who has won an Oscar award for "Pianist," served 42 days in prison and fled to Europe just before sentencing for that crime. He claimed he was the victim of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. He was arrested by Swiss authorities on Sept. 26 when he was in Zurich to accept a lifetime achievement award from a film festival organizer.

Prosecutors said the proceedings should pick up exactly where they left off in 1978 -- with a judge sentencing Polanski for a statutory rape charge. Legal experts, however, said Polanski has options beyond begging for leniency. There are a number of legal maneuvers, such as withdrawing his guilty plea, that could result in the case being dropped entirely or in a sentence of no prison time.

On Wednesday, Polanski's attorney Georges Kiejman said the director may be open to extradition, turning himself in to the U.S. authorities before a Los Angeles court deliberate his case.

He was quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying "If the procedure drags on, it is not impossible that Roman Polanski could choose to go and explain himself in the United States, where there are some arguments in his favor."

However, other attorneys promptly denied the report, saying he will fight extradition from Zurich.

Source: Xinhua