Polanski Update: Swiss Accept 4.5 Million Bail

by Anne Thompson
November 25, 2009 5:17 AM
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Filmmaker Roman Polanski, in 30-year-exile from the U.S., has been smoldering in a Swiss jail for two months. He may have his get-out-of-jail card, but it is not free. A Swiss court has finally accepted the 76-year-old director's offer to pay 4.5 million Swiss francs to stay under house arrest with 24-hour electric monitoring in his Swiss villa in Gstaad. But he's not out of jail yet. The Ministry of Justice has ten days to decide whether or not to appeal the ruling. Judge Cornelia Cova wrote of Polanski's perceived flight risk:

"As a responsible family father and with regard to his advanced age, the value of financial security for his family has a greater meaning than for a relatively younger person.”

The U.S. requested formal extradition on October 22.