Movie director Roman Polanski will not be released from a prison while he challenges extradition to the United States, a Swiss court ruled today.

The Associated Press reports that the Swiss Criminal Court said the 76-year-old Polanski is too much of a flight risk.

He has been a fugitive since fleeing the United States in 1978 after being convicted for having sex with a 13-year-old girl the year before.

The director of Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and other critically acclaimed films was arrested by Swiss authorities last month in Zurich.

Some in Hollywood have been arguing that Polanski shouldn't be put in prison. Court papers from his trial, though, describe what Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson calls the "grotesque" crime.