L'Express the French newspaper has fingered French President Nicolas Sarkozy for hand delivered a letter from fugitive director Roman Polanski to President Obama when the pair were recently in Prague during nuclear non-proliferation talks asking Obama for leniency in his case.

The politics of a president going to bat for a person who admitted having unlawful sexual relations with a 13-year-old and subsequently fleeing the country is ill-advised to the point of absurdity.

Sarkozy has no such moral compunction assisted Polanski in gaining release from prison on $4.5 million bail and being placed under house arrest at Polanski's Swiss chalet.
After having been sprung from the jail cell, Polanski's sister-in-law, actress Mathilde Seigner, told the Le Parisien newspaper, "The president [Sarkozy] has been very effective."

Last week a Californian appeal court rejected Roman Polanski's latest attempt to end his decades-old sex case, a move that could set the stage for the fugitive film director's return to the US.

The ruling is a crucial loss in Polanski's battle to avoid being returned to Los Angeles for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Swiss officials have been waiting for clarity from the United States about whether the 76-year-old filmmaker needs to appear before a U.S. court to be sentenced. While that question appeared largely solved, barring a reversal from California's Supreme Court, the Swiss dampened expectations of an imminent decision from Switzerland.