Zurich, Sep 27 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Director, producer, writer and actor Roman Polanski who molested a 13-year-old girl in 1978 in the US and later fled to France, was arrested today as he traveled from France to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said he was being held under a 2005 international alert issued by the US government.

A spokesman said the US would now have to make a formal extradition request.

The director can contest his detention and any extradition decision in the Swiss courts, he added.

Mr. Polanski’s lawyer, Georges Kiejman, said he planned to challenge his client’s arrest.

“We are going to try to lift the arrest warrant in Zurich,” he told France Info radio. “The [extradition] convention between Switzerland and the United States is not very clear.”

Mr. Polanski fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl.

After fleeing to Europe following his U.S. conviction, Polanski continued to direct movies, including Frantic (1988), Death and the Maiden (1994), The Ninth Gate (1999), the Academy Award-winning (for best director) and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or-winning The Pianist (2002), and Oliver Twist (2005). He has also acted in theatre and in other films too.