Oscar-winning director of films including Chinatown and The Pianist pleaded guilty in 1977 to unlawful sex with 13-year-old

Polish prosecutors have sent a request to a court in Krakow for the extradition of filmmaker Roman Polanski to the US over a 1977 child sex-crime conviction.

“The further actions in this case will depend on the court,” the prosecutors’ office in Krakow said in a statement.

According to Polish law, if the court decides that theUS request should proceed further, the justice minister will then make the decision on whether to extradite Polanski.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker pleaded guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer during a photoshoot in Los Angeles.

Polanski served 42 days in jail as part of a 90-day plea bargain. He fled the US the following year, believing the judge hearing his case could overrule the deal and return him to jail for years.

In 2009, Polanski was arrested in Zurich on the US warrant and placed under house arrest. He was freed in 2010 after Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to the US.

Now 81, he is viewed by many Poles as one of their greatest living cultural figures. Internationally renowned for films including Chinatown and The Pianist, Polanski is in Poland to make a film about the Dreyfus affair, a political scandal that shook France more than a century ago.