The Swiss Justice Ministry says it has denied Roman Polanski’s request to be released from prison.

An international tug-of-war over the 76-year-old director escalated as France and Poland urged Switzerland to free him on bail and pressed U.S. officials all the way up to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the case.

Swiss police arrested him September 26 on an international warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival.

Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl and fled into exile in France in 1977. He has avoided traveling to countries since that were likely to extradite him.

He had spent 42 days in prison in what his lawyers believed was his full sentence under a plea bargain. But a decision by the now deceased judge to add more prison time and require his voluntary deportation prompted him to leave the country.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself, has joined in Polanski’s bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

The U.S. has had an outstanding warrant on Polanski since 1978, but the Swiss said American authorities have sought the arrest of the director around the world only since 2005.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish; he received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie “The Pianist.” He and Seigner have two children.