Polish court adjourns Polanski extradition case until mid-September

WARSAW A Polish court on Friday adjourned until mid-September a hearing on whether to extradite filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States over a 1977 child sex conviction.

Polanski, who lives in France, is in Poland making a movie but did not appear in the Krakow court on Friday and was represented by lawyers. Judge Dariusz Mazur said Poland had requested further information from U.S. authorities by Aug. 8.

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to having sex with a 13-year-old girl during a photoshoot in Los Angeles fueled by champagne and drugs.

He served 42 days in jail as part of a 90-day sentence he received in a plea-bargain deal. 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.

In 2009, Polanski was arrested in the Swiss city of Zurich on a U.S. warrant and placed under house arrest. He was freed in 2010 after Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him.

Now 81, the filmmaker, who holds Polish and French citizenship, is viewed by many Poles as one of their greatest living cultural figures. Internationally renowned for such films as "Chinatown" and "The Pianist", Polanski is in Poland making a film about the Dreyfus affair, a political scandal that shook France more than a century ago.

(Reporting by Wojciech Zurawski; Writing by Wiktor Szary; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)