Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski has lost his latest legal bid to be sentenced, while outside the US, for having unlawful sex with an underage girl in 1977.
A court in California ruled that the 76-year-old, who is currently under house arrest in Switzerland, must return to California before he can be sentenced.
Polanski fled the US for his native France in 1978 on the eve of sentencing for the original crime and is now fighting extradition from Switzerland.
He was taken into custody last September. Swiss officials have said they are awaiting the outcome of US legal proceedings before deciding whether to extradite him.
The appellate panel found Polanski 'failed to demonstrate' that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza lacked the discretion to refuse his request to remain abroad while the case against him was concluded.
A spokeswoman for Polanski's lawyers said they had no comment on whether there would be further appeals.
Denial of his appeal to be sentenced in absentia came shortly after the same court rejected a separate petition filed by the woman who was his victim at age 13 to have the case dismissed altogether.
Samantha Geimer, now in her 40s and a mother-of-three living in Hawaii, has long sought to put the protracted court battle to rest, arguing that she has become victimised all over again by the efforts of prosecutors to bring Polanski to justice.
