A California court has ordered the lifting of the confidentiality that weighs so far on the testimony of a former prosecutor in the charges of rape of a minor against Roman Polanski, who according to the director would show that justice did not respect an agreement concluded with him in this file.
On Tuesday, the current Los Angeles County Prosecutor, George Gascon, announced that his services will no longer oppose the lifting of the confidentiality of the testimony of his predecessor Roger Gunson, in the interests of the transparency of justice.
A requested testimonial since 2010
An appeal court ordered this Wednesday the disclosure of the record of this testimony, claimed since 2010 by two journalists who work on this file that involves the Franco-Polish director, who will turn 89 next month.
Prosecutor Gascón welcomed this decision and emphasized in a press release that he did not know when the competent court would disclose the documents in question.
We do not know the exact content of the transcripts of this testimony given behind closed doors by George Gunson, the prosecutor who led the trial against Roman Polanski at the time and who retired in 2002.
But the director’s lawyers, who unsuccessfully requested its publication on several occasions, argued that this testimony would show that justice did not respect the terms of an agreement reached with him. To avoid a public trial for Samantha Gailey, the prosecutor had dropped the most serious charges at the time in exchange for Roman Polanski admitting a sexual relationship with a minor.
Roman Polanski ‘remains a fugitive’
Under this agreement, the director had been sentenced to three months in prison, but in reality he only spent 42 days there, before being released for good behaviour.
When a judge seemed about to renege on the agreement to sentence him to several decades in prison, Roman Polanski flew to Paris in January 1978 and never set foot in the United States again. He remains the subject of an international arrest warrant and has been at risk of extradition on several occasions.
On Tuesday, George Gascon insisted that Roman Polanski “remains a fugitive” and “must go to court to be sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court.”
Source: BFM TV
