As reported by the Associated Press on Friday, the Swiss court has once again rejected imprisoned movie director Roman Polanski plea for bail, for the same reason he denied the first time, for fear he may make an attempt to flee the country.
Folco Galli, spokesman of the Justice Ministry, said the offer was not made in cash and failed to address concerns that the 76-year old Polanski would flee Switzerland as he waits as to whether he will and all likelyhood, face extradition back the the United States on charges for having sex with a 13-year old girl back in 1977.
Polanski has been in serving time in jail since being arrested back on September 26, as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime award at the Goldeneye Film Festival, but was surprisingly apprehended by the authorities at the Zurich Airport. He's been fighting extradition since, and has been met by a number of legal entanglements.
His latest attempt at bail was filed on Monday. Now that it was denied again, he has 10 days to file for an appeal to the Swiss Criminal Court, which has been responsible for him being maintained in jail, despite being offered an exchange for house arrest and electronic monitoring.
Polanski's laywer, Herve Temime said briefly when making plans to take a new bail request, "This is what we want." Legal experts opinions on the matter feel that Polanski has very little to almost no chance of bail, no matter how many times he files for it simply because of his long history as a fugitive.
In 1977, Polanski had been accused of raping the 13-year old girl during a photo shoot, with the aid of champagne and a quaalude pill. He was indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.
He pleaded to a lesser charge of unlawful sex--in exchange, the judge agreed to drop the other remaining charges and sentenced him to spend 90-days in prison for psychiatric evaluation. Polanski was released after 42 days by an evaluator, but the judge was unsatisfied and was planning to send him back to finish out the rest of his 90-day sentence, but he fled the U.S. on February 1, 1978, the day of his sentence.
For more info: Roman Polanski, Recent article on Polanski's first attempt at bail
Comments
Please don't let Romanski's money buy him better treatment than others in the same boat.
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