Despite Thursday's setback in which a state appeals court turned down his request to be sentenced while he remains overseas, Roman Polanski said through his lawyers Friday that he will challenge attempts by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to have him extradited from Switzerland.

Yesterday's ruling might have been the end of the line for the director's attempts to live a European life outside the reach of his 33-year-old sex-with-a-minor case: Swiss officials said they would not extradite him to L.A. until the sentencing matter was decided. Well, it's been decided. But attorney Douglas Dalton released a statement on behalf of Polanski that reads, in part, “The Court of Appeal decision yesterday did not decide the issue of extradition.”

Besides bringing up an allegation of misconducted in the original 1977 trial, in which a prosecutor is accused of having inappropriately influenced the late judge in the case behind closed doors, Dalton did not say what further recourse Polanski's legal team would have in holding off extradition.

The director fled to France in 1978 after he says prosecutors reneged on a plea deal and the judge indicated he would serve more time than the more than 40 days he spent in psychiatric evaluation for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He hasn't been back to L.A. since, but the D.A.'s office caught wind of a trip he had planned to Switzerland last summer to pick up an award and had him picked up. Polanski has been under house arrest at his Swiss chalet since December.

-With reporting from Weekly wire services. Got news? Email us.

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