Why didn the French government ever hand him over?
Because he’s a French citizen. Under the current U.S. extradition treaty with France (PDF), either country may refuse to extradite its own citizens. (Polanski was born in Paris.) This sort of exemption is a widespread and time-honored aspect of international relations. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans would extradite their own. In the modern era, France has been the strongest advocate for this provision. (The United States did manage to strong-arm the French into dropping the policy in 1843, but France changed its mind a few years later.) Some extradition treaties override the provision when it comes to heinous crimes. A citizen might be extradited, for example, if he were accused of murder or rape. Why did the Swiss choose this moment to arrest Polanski? Because the United States asked them to. The authorities over there might have nabbed Polanski in years past, given that he owns a home in a Swiss skiing town and travels there regularly. State and federal prosecutors in the United S
