Roman Polanski awaited release from a Swiss prison on Thursday after a court granted him a US$4.5 million bail pending a final decision on whether he should be extradited to the US over a child sex case.
The 76-year-old Oscar winning director, who fled the US in 1978 after admitting having sex with a 13-year-old girl, will be restricted to his chalet in a Swiss resort and be subject to 24-hour electronic surveillance.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered Polanski kept in detention while the justice ministry decides whether it would appeal against the bail. But the government said it would not object.
US authorities, who have been actively hunting Polanski for several years, made no immediate official comment on the bail move.
In a statement, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court said there was a “high” danger that the director of Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown would try to flee.
But it said the 4.5 million Swiss francs (US$4.5 million) bail offered by the director, together with him handing over identity papers, and house arrest with electronic monitoring were “sufficient to avert the risk of flight.”
The court said Polanski would not be freed until all the conditions had been fulfilled.
Polanski, who has Polish and French nationality, has a chalet at Gstaad, where he will now have to stay once released, his lawyers said.
Acting on a US warrant, Swiss police detained Polanski when he arrived at Zurich airport on Sept. 26 to attend a film festival where he was to receive a special award. He has been held in prison ever since, vowing through his lawyers to fight extradition.
Marc Henzelin, a Swiss lawyer and specialist on extradition cases, said it was “very rare” for bail to be allowed in such cases.
Two earlier requests for bail were turned down because of fears that Polanski would leave the country.
But in the latest ruling, the court said that the bail sum offered represented a “substantial portion of Polanski’s fortune.”
“Regarding his advanced age in the case of loss of said bail the possibility of re-accumulation of fortune in this amount would not be certain,” it said.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said she saw “no reason” to contest the decision before the federal court in Lausanne — the nation’s highest judicial body.
“The federal court has taken the decision with full knowledge of the facts,” she told Swiss public television.
Polanski has been regarded as a fugitive by US authorities since he fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in California.
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