Polanski court to rule in April

Judge Dariusz Mazur adjourned Wednesday to examine evidence in the extradition trial of Roman Polanski, who faces sentencing in the US for the 1977 sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. Beata Gorszczyk, spokeswoman for the district court in the southern city of Krakow - where Polanski lived as a child in the 1930s - said the court would break for several weeks to study documents he had also used in Switzerland in a similar case in 2010.

"This was tiring and painful, because I've had to return to things that I would prefer to forget," Polanski, 81, told reporters as he left the courtroom on Wednesday. He had lost an appeal to dismiss the case in December.

Charged with rape in 1977, Polanski, then 43, pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old in Los Angeles after giving her alcohol and drugs. The victim has also said that she accepted a large sum of money from Polanski, who has since won an Oscar for "The Pianist," to keep quiet about the encounter.

Polanski served 42 days in jail as part of a plea bargain. He fled the United States the following year, believing the judge hearing his case could overrule the deal and put him in jail for years.

'Isn't the last'

Interpol has an arrest warrant out for Polanski in 188 countries, though France, Switzerland and Poland have sheltered him. In 2009, Swiss police arrested Polanski, who holds French and Polish citizenship, and then released him on closely monitored bail while authorities considered whether to extradite Polanski. Authorities freed him in 2010.

On Wednesday, Jan Olszewski, an attorney for Polanski, said the defense would aim to get the court to rule the extradition request unjustified given the 1977 plea bargain. "This isn't the last hearing," Olszewski told reporters after the marathon closed door hearing. "The next one will likely be in April."

Closed to the media, Polanski's hearing started at 0900 UTC Wednesday and lasted nine hours, with the judge allowing food from the local canteen in the courtroom during the day. Under Polish law, if the court rules in favor of extraditing Polanski, the justice minister would make the final decision. Should the judge decide against it, the decision would stand.

"I still have faith in the Polish administration of justice," Polanski said Wednesday, looking weary.

Polanski plans to begin shooting a new film in Poland in July.

mkg/gsw (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)