Switzerland rejects Polanski extradition

Roman Polanski is nowa free man, after the Swiss government announced Monday that it has rejected the U.S. request to extradite the Oscar-winning filmmaker over a 1977 rape case.

"Mr. Polanski is able to move around freely," Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced at a press conference in Bern on Monday.

"He's free to leave."

Polanski has been in Swiss custody since his arrest in Zurich last September.

The Swiss ministry's decision was "not about deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty" of the U.S. crime, Widmer-Schlumpf said.

"The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a fault in the U.S. extradition request," she said, adding that the issue was "thoroughly examined."

In a statement, Switzerland's Justice Ministry said that national interests had been taken into consideration in its decision.

The U.S. Justice Department has declined comment.

Polanski, 76, was arrested by Swiss police on Sept. 26as he arrived in Zurich to accept a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.

In December, the French-born Polish director behind films like Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown andThe Pianist was fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet and placed under house arrest at his Swiss chalet in Gstaad,while the Swiss decided whether he would be extradited to the U.S., which has sought him as a fugitive over the rape case for years.

During his house arrest, Polanski finished work onhis latest film, The Ghost Writer, which had its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Polanski is married to French actress Emmanuelle Seigner and the couple has two children.

Accused of rape

In 1977, Polanski was accused of plying Samantha Geimer, then 13,with champagne and part of a Quaalude during a modelling shoot and raping her.

Indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, thefilmmaker later issued a guilty plea to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse and served time in prison.

According to Polanski's attorneys, the now deceased judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, had agreed to sentence Polanski to a 90-day diagnostic study and nothing more.

However, he later changed his mind and summoned Polanski for further sentencing, prompting the director to flee to France, which has a limited extradition treaty with the U.S. and where he has lived predominantly ever since.

Polanski's lawyers have been fighting the extradition case in Los Angeles, but in January, a U.S. judge ruled he must return to be sentenced on the charges.

The Swiss Justice Ministry had sought records from the original U.S. case, namelyfiles fromRittenband's meeting with Polanski's lawyers abouthis jail term. However, the U.S. Justice Departmentturned down the request, saying the files were confidential.

"In these circumstances it is not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty that Roman Polanski has already served the sentence he was condemned to at the time and that the extradition request is undermined by a serious fault," the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement.

"Considering the persisting doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case, the [extradition] request has to be rejected."

In May, Polanski broke months of silence to plead his case in a written statement.

"It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States," he wrote.

"I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I only ask to be treated fairly like anyone else."

U.S. authorities could still apply to other countries to detain and extradite Polanski.