Roman Polanski gets $4.5 million bail

Oscar winning director Roman Polanski has been granted a $4.5 million bail to be released from a Swiss prison and placed under house arrest.

But the country’s justice ministry has 10 days to appeal the decision.

The acclaimed director of “Chinatown” and “The Pianist” was arrested in Zurich last September in connection with a 32-year-old rape charge filed in Los Angeles.

His female victim, Samantha Geimer, then a 13-year-old girl, has repeatedly pleaded with authorities to drop the charges.

At this time, Swiss authorities are still undecided as to whether Polanski will be extradited to the United States and tried for his crime.

From the Daily Mail:

[T]he film director will have to remain in jail while the country’s government decide on whether to appeal the decision.

Polanski has been held for two months after America applied to have him extradited on child sex charges.

Under an agreement hammered out by the 76-year-old’s lawyers, Polanski will be released from prison and kept under house arrest while wearing an electronic tag.

He owns a family ski chalet in the upmarket resort of Gstaad, and has pledged not to flee to his home city of Paris.

Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said: ‘We have ten days to appeal, but will come to our decision quickly.’

He said that Polanski is considered a ‘high flight risk’ - perhaps because he has already spent 30 years dodging American justice.

Read more about the ongoing Polanski case at Hollywood Jew:
Roman Polanski arrested on 70s rape charge
Does jail remind Polanski of the Holocaust?