Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski, 76, “Chinatown,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Ninth Gate,” and “The Pianist,” husband of 1969 Charles Manson Family murder victim, actress Sharon Tate, was arrested Saturday by Switzerland‘s police at Zurich Airport on a 31 year-old U.S. arrest warrant for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977, and fleeing to France.

However, the timing of the arrest has drawn sharp criticism and deep suspicion around the world, considering Polanski has owned a house he has frequently stayed in for many years within the Swiss borders. His arrest came just prior to when he was to receive the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye award for lifetime achievement. Festival organizers said they were “shocked and dismayed” by the arrest, but still staged the award ceremony, hailed as “A Tribute to Roman Polanski” on Sunday.

The Swiss Association of Directors decried the arrest as a:

“grotesque judicial farce and a monstrous cultural scandal.”

The Swiss Association of Film Directors and Script Writers denounced his detention as:

“a slap in the face for the entire cultural community in Switzerland.”

Protesters took to the streets of Zurich carrying signs saying: “Free Polanski,” and “Polanski’s arrest is a disgrace for culture in Switzerland.”

British writer Robert Harris, who spent much of the summer with Polanski at his Swiss home working with on a film adaptation of his novel “The Ghost,” said:

“Something very odd, very suspicious” [about the timing of the arrest.] To my knowledge, Roman in recent years has traveled to Germany, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Russia, China. So why now, all of a sudden, is an elderly man grabbed off a plane on a Saturday night and stuffed into jail?”

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, said:

“Any time word is received that Mr. Polanski is planning to be in a country that has an extradition treaty with the U.S., we go through diplomatic channels with the arrest warrant.”

Polanski’s L.A. attorneys Douglas Dalton, Chad Hummel, and Bart Dalton countered with:

“We were unaware of any extradition being sought, and separate counsel will be retained for those proceedings.”

Polanski’s French lawyer, Georges Kiejman, added:

“[It is] too early to know [if Polanski would be extradited.] The proceedings must take their course. For now we are trying to have the arrest warrant lifted in Zurich.”

Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the director will remain in Zurich until the conclusion of the extradition proceedings. The U.S. now has 60 days to file a formal request for Polanski’s extradition.

His victim, Samantha Geimer (left), formerly Samantha Gailey, was plied with champagne and the sedative Quaalude and assaulted during a modeling photoshoot for “Vogue” magazine at Jack Nicholson‘s house. Now living in Hawaii with her three children, Gailey backs Polanski’s bid for dismissal of the case against him, saying she wants it to be over. She earlier successfully sued Polanski for an undisclosed out of court civil settlement.

In recent times, it has come to light that a possible miscarriage of justice took place in the Polanski case. New evidence in the HBO documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (trailer below) pointed to misconduct by Santa Monica Judge Laurence A. Rittenband, who has since died, during the 1977 trial.

Polanski entered an agreed plea deal, plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of psychiatric evaluation. But the judge reneged on the deal, and facing more prison time, the director took flight.

In February, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza said:

“It is hard to contest that some of the conduct portrayed in film on that documentary was misconduct.”

However, Espinoza refused to consider dismissal of the case without Polanski’s physical presence in court, which was an impossible situation given his warrant for immediate arrest if he ever set foot on United States Of America soil.

Watch “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” trailer:

The Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski has been placed “in provisional detention.” An arrest warrant or extradition to the United States could be subject to judicial review by the Federal Criminal Court (Bundesstrafgericht) and then the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgericht.)

Poland‘s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski announced he might request clemency for Polanski from U.S. president Barack Obama.

Digital Cheeseburger finds it, both, curious and ironic that Polanski, born Rajmund Roman Liebling, should finally be arrested after 31 years on the lam…a mere two days following Thursday’s death of Susan Atkins, the murderer who stabbed to death his second wife, Sharon Tate.

Watch Reuters news report on Polanski’s arrest:

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