A backlash was growing last night against the actors and directors who leapt to the defence of Roman Polanski after his arrest on a child sex charge.

Celebrated cinema luminaries including Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese called for Polanski to be freed immediately from arrest in Switzerland on a US extradition warrant.

He is wanted for fleeing 30 years ago to avoid sentencing after admitting unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Lawyers for the film director have appealed for his release on bail.

Luc Besson, the director of Léon, however, refused to sign the Hollywood petition, saying that no one should be above the law, and Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, criticised his Foreign Minister for urging the director’s freedom.

Times Archive, 1977: Hollywood director charged with rape

According to police, the alleged assault happened at the home of the actor Jack Nicholson

• Polanski plea bargain in child rape case

• Mr Polanski free until December

• Polanski extradition call

Related Links

• Polanski's travels tracked by US since 1978

• Should Roman Polanski have to pay?

Polanski, 76, is said to have felt no qualms about visiting Zurich Film Festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award, partly because his lawyers believed that he was no longer actively being sought. He faces a wait of up to two weeks to hear about bail, which legal sources said was unlikely.

“The case involves a great director but still it is also a case of ... sex with a child,” Mr Tusk said. “We should not bring politics into this or speak in patriotic tones.”

Mr Tusk’s warning followed an appeal by his Foreign Minister, Radek Sikorski, and Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister of France, where Polanski lives with his wife and two children.

The petition has been signed by more than 100 cinema industry figures. “We demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski,” it stated. “Film-makers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision.”

The Times understands that Polanski’s lawyers made claims on two grounds in Switzerland yesterday, arguing that the nature of his arrest was unlawful and demanding his immediate release.

The Oscar-winning director of films including Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist faces several months in prison because the US has 60 days to send its formal extradition request and the appeal process is likely to last “some weeks”, Swiss authorities said.

In Hollywood, Polanski’s friends and admirers were as outraged that the Los Angeles District Attorney still wanted to prosecute the 32-year-old case, not least because his victim said that she did not believe that he should be pursued.

The actress Whoopi Goldberg said: “I don’t believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and when they let him out he was like, ‘You know what, this [judge] is going to give me a hundred years in jail. I’m not staying’.”

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president