LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles judge has ruled Roman Polanski must return to the U.S. to be sentenced in a decades-old sex case.

Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza said he ruled on Friday “in defense of the integrity of the justice system, (Polanski) needs to surrender.”

Espinoza’s ruling is likely to be appealed.

Attorneys for the 76-year-old Polanski attorneys have argued their client should be sentenced in absentia to time already served after pleading guilty in 1978 to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

Prosecutors insist Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles courtroom and not be permitted to manipulate the justice system.

Polanski is under house arrest in his Swiss vacation home.