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The Swiss authorities have detained Roman Polanski in connection with the arrest warrant issued by the United States over the statutory rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. The girl, who is now a middle-aged woman, has indicated that she does not think the case should be pursued, and in February this year an American judge agreed that the judge at the original proceedings was guilty of misconduct for reneging on a plea bargain. The futility of the entire business is underlined by the fact that, although Polanski has carefully avoided going to the US or to countries with which the US has an extradition treaty, he has been in Switzerland on a number of occasions. The Swiss justice ministry declined to say why he hadn't been arrested there before, despite their having "been aware for some years" of the existence of the warrant.