This is supremely bizarre : a list of over 200 Hollywood celebrities who support Roman Polanski. In that, they are against his extradition to the U.S. and continuation of the 32-year old pending case against him for alleged rape of a minor.

I had raised this issue a few days back and still don’t get how people cannot decouple art and life. Why should Roman Polanski be absolved of his crime?  Just because he directed an Oscar winning movie ?

I hate to stretch a ridiculous argument further, but I’m curious to know if these supporters would agree to a change in the rape laws – imprisonment or make an Oscar winning movie within 30 years.

The facts are thus – he spiked the drink of a 13-year old girl and is accused of non-consensual sex and sodomy. An entirely different fact is that even if consensual, the age of consent is 16, so that doesn’t count as an effective argument. He further ruined her life beyond repair to the extent that it is spoken about till today.

The victim has gone on record saying that she wishes Polanski isn’t convicted. Although this seems to strengthen the argument of the supporters, I firmly believe a victim should have no say once the law takes over. We can’t help it if a victim does not file a complaint, but once it is a legal case, the victim should have no say in the matter of conviction. Apart from being a right thing to do, it evades the issues of threatening or forcing victims to plead for the accused.

Personally, I think he is a superb filmmaker – but a bad example for society, and he must be punished proportional to the severity of his crime.

No more, no less.