Leading Polish politicians have accused U.S. authorities of "absolute ignorance" by trying to arrest director Roman Polanski at the opening of a Jewish museum last week (ends02Nov14).

The Rosemary's Baby filmmaker turned himself in for questioning by Polish prosecutors in Krakow on Thursday (30Oct14).

U.S. authorities asked for the 81 year old to be detained so he could be extradited to America to be punished for a sex crime conviction, which he pleaded guilty to in the late 1970s.

However, prosecutors decided to release him because they had not received an official extradition request from the U.S.

President Bronislaw Komorowski's adviser Tomasz Nalecz has now accused the U.S. Embassy of inappropriately seeking to arrest Polish-born Polanski while he was opening a Jewish history museum in the capital Warsaw, especially as he is a Holocaust survivor.

Nalecz says, "From the point of view of Polish history (they) showed absolute ignorance".

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the way U.S. officials were "hunting" the director was inappropriate while Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz added, "I think that Polish citizens, especially in cases of crimes whose statute of limitations have run out, should not be subject to extradition."

Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in 1977 but fled the country on the eve of his sentencing. The statute of limitations does not apply in his case because he has been convicted.

He now lives in France.