娱乐英语新闻:Swiss officials: extradition decision on Polanski due soon

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Swiss officials said they will decide soon whether to extradite Roman Polanski back to the U.S. to finally answer to charges in a 33-year-old rape case, according to the Associated Press on Monday.

Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said, "It won't be long" before a decision on the extradition request. He refused to give more details.

The French-born actor, director and screenwriter fled the U. S. in 1978 just before he was supposed to be sentenced for raping the 13-year-old girl Samantha Geimer at Jack Nicholson's home.

Director Roman Polanski is pictured during a news conference to present his musical "Tanz der Vampire" ("Dance of the Vampires") in Oberhausen, Germany in this September 29, 2008 file photo.

The 76-year-old filmmaker was arrested on Sept. 26 last year as he came to receive a lifetime achievement award at a Zurich film festival and has been under house arrest since December 2009.

The director's lawyers have been fighting extradition in U.S. courts, but in January, a Los Angeles judge ruled Polanski must return to the U.S. to be sentenced on the charges.

Polanski would be allowed to appeal extradition.

Last year, Polanski's victim formally requested that all charges against him be dropped, saying dealing with the media attention was much worse than the actual crime.

“I have survived, indeed prevailed, against whatever harm Mr. Polanski may have caused me as a child," she said, "I got over it a long time ago."