GENEVA (AP) - Swiss prosecutors say they won’t pursue an investigation of Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski over allegations by a German woman that he raped her when she was a teenager 45 years ago.
Prosecutors in the Swiss capital, Bern, said Wednesday that the statute of limitations for the alleged crime of sexual actions with children had long since expired.
The 61-year-old plaintiff filed a criminal complaint in September alleging Polanski raped her at his chalet in Gstaad, in Bern canton (state) in 1972. The statute of limitations was 15 years at the time.
Polanski’s lawyer, Herve Temime, said in an email to The Associated Press that he “takes note” of the Swiss prosecutors’ decision.
Temime added that the allegations mentioned in the complaint were “contested by Mr. Polanski and unfounded.”
The 84-year-old Polanski has been a fugitive from U.S. justice since he fled to France in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in California.
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