Roman Polanski is expected to spend the holidays under electronic monitoring at his Alpine chalet after a Swiss court agreed Wednesday to the director's $4.5 million bail request.
Legal experts said the bail figures to lengthen a battle over whether Polanski should be extradited to Los Angeles to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Ministry of Justice spokesman Folco Galli said the final decision on transferring Polanski to his chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad would be made quickly.
Details about why the court decided to grant bail remain unclear. The Ministry of Justice had argued that Polanski, 76, should remain behind bars until extradition is resolved. Switzerland's justice minister said on national TV that it was not going to appeal the ruling.
Some U.S. legal experts were surprised the court would grant bail given Polanski's record of fleeing justice. "It is very rare to get bail in an extradition case and especially in cases where the person's fled," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor. "This is a little like giving bail to O.J. [Simpson] after the Bronco chase." LOS ANGELES TIMES
