25/11/09

Polanski finally received some good news on 25^th November – almost two months after his arrest at Zurich airport – when the Swiss justice Ministry announced it would not appeal the Swiss criminal Court’s decision to grant the director $4.5 million bail. The bail, which was considered extremely unusual for non-residential prisoners considered a high flight risk, was secured against Polanski’s Paris apartment on the condition that he surrendered his identity papers, wore an electronic ankle bracelet and did not leave his $1.6 million chalet in Gstaad. The $4.5 million would be forfeited to the Swiss government if Polanski violated any of these conditions.

Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the decision on whether to extradite Polanski to the United States would be made within a ‘couple of weeks.’

4/12/09

Although he had hoped to be released from prison within days of the Swiss Criminal Court granting bail, Polanski did not emerge from Winterthur, the prison near Zurich in which he had been imprisoned, until Friday 4^th December due to delays in posting bail. Unlike the USA, where a prisoner’s release could be secured upon the posting of only a percentage of the total bail, Swiss law required that the full value of bail was posted prior to the prisoner’s release.

He travelled in a police convoy directly to his three-storey home in Gstaad to join his wife and two children, 9-year-old Elvis and 16-year-old Morgane. Under the conditions of the bail his movements would be restricted to its rooms and garden. While this would undoubtedly prove restricting, it represented a vast improvement over the small cell he had occupied for the previous ten weeks. However, the threat of extradition to the United States to face possible imprisonment for fleeing the country in the 70s still hung over the director. Folco Galli confirmed a decision was expected in the next few weeks but was unable to say whether it would happen before the end of the year.

Under the terms of the bail, Polanski was free to talk to the press, but shortly after his return home a private security guard delivered a message to expectant reporters telling them they might as well leave as the director and his wife would not be coming out to talk to them. A section of the grounds inaccessible to strangers was cordoned off by a fence and red-and-white tape.

When asked for a comment on the Swiss court’s decision to release Polanski on bail, Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said, ‘We're not going to be making any comments about Mr. Polanski outside court while his extradition is pending in the Swiss courts.’

16/12/10

Folco Galli, the Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman, announced on 16^th December 2009 that no decision regarding the United State’s request for the extradition of Polanski would be made until the New Year. He told the press, ‘There will be nothing more this year. At the earliest we’ll make an announcement early next year as to whether the criteria for extradition have been met.’

The previous week, Polanski’s legal team in the United States petitioned for the dismissal of the 32-year-old case of sexual abuse relating to the extradition proceedings, citing judicial misconduct.

Meanwhile, it was announced on Tuesday 15^th December that the Berlin Film Festival would be screening The Ghost Writer, Polanski’s new film starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, in competition in February 2010. Polanski completed work on the film while he was incarcerated in Winterthur prison.

21/12/09

On 21^st December 2009, the California 2^nd District Court of Appeal denied Polanski’s petition to have the sex abuse charges dismissed on the grounds of misconduct. In a statement to the media, the court said: ‘We encourage all participating parties to do their utmost to ensure that this matter now draws to a close in a manner that fully addresses the issues of due process and fundamental fairness raised by the events of long ago… The passage of more time before this case's final resolution will further hamper the search for truth and the delivery of any appropriate relief, and it will also prolong the agony that the lack of finality in this matter continues to cause Samantha Geimer.’

29/12/09

On 29^th December 2009, comments made by Polanski from his cell in a letter to French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy were published online at the director’s request. He wrote ‘I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children.’ Writing about the messages of support from neighbours and people from around the world, Polanski went on, ‘I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning mail. In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope.’

It was reported that the director was completing editing on his latest film, The Ghost Writer, while under house arrest at his luxury chalet in Gstaad.

Part Two                                                                                                                                                                                Part Four