BBC: Polanski victim seeks dismissal

[Heidi]

Page last updated at 22:49 GMT, Monday, 26 October 2009

The victim of the sexual assault committed by Roman Polanski has called for charges against the film director to be dismissed, court documents show.

Lawyers for Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when Polanski had sex with her in 1977, urged a dismissal in a motion filed at a California appeals court on Friday.

She had suffered health problems after being hounded by the media following Polanski's arrest last month, it said.

The director is currently being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant.

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The papers filed on behalf of Ms Geimer, who lives in Hawaii, ask judges at California's 2nd District Court of Appeal to rule on a previous motion to dismiss the charges against Polanski.

Claiming that Polanski had been forced to flee by a "corrupt" judge, they state: "No matter what his crime, Polanski was entitled to be treated fairly; he was not."

They also complain that Ms Geimer is being stalked by journalists from news outlets and talk show producers, and that she and her lawyer had received nearly 500 telephone calls in a month.

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