US 'tries to have Polanski arrested' in Poland

© Benoit Tessier/Reuters Director Roman Polanski arrives for the screening of the film "Saint Laurent," at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, May 17, 2014.
The United States attempted to have the film director Roman Polanski arrested for sex offences when he travelled to Warsaw for the opening of a Jewish museum, a Polish newspaper claimed Thursday.
Polish-born Polanski, 81, who also has French nationality, has been sought by the American police since 1977 after he fled the country before he could be sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The United States asked the Polish prosector general to hold the director of such films as "Chinatown", "The Pianist" and "Rosemary's Baby" until he could be extradited, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
The request was rejected because it had not been translated into Polish, said the paper, quoting a senior justice ministry official.
There was no official confirmation of the request.
In 2010, the Polish prosecutor general said Polanski could not be extradited because under Polish law too much time had passed since the offences.
But this is not the case in American law, and he still could have been held at the US request, a prosecutor quoted by the paper said.
However, the director was able to return to France, where he is directing a stage show called the "The Vampires' Ball".
Polanski was arrested in 2009 in Zurich when he travelled to Switzerland to pick up a prize at a film festival after the United States made a similar request.
But he was eventually allowed to return to France after an extradition bid failed.
Polanski had previously made a private trip to Poland in 2011 but his visit this week, where he appeared on television at the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, could not be kept secret.