Polanski will enjoy broad freedoms during house arrest at his Alpine chalet

When Roman Polanski is released on bail in the next few days to be under house arrest at his Alpine chalet, he will have much more freedom than he did at his Zurich-area jail cell, according to reports from Switzerland.

A Swiss justice officials was quoted by AFP and Swiss news media as saying Polanski would be allowed to make unlimited phone calls and have full access to e-mail and the Internet. Although he cannot leave his house, he can invite friends over and throw parties at the tony chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad.

"He will have no prison regime," Justice Ministry spokesman Falco Galli told AFP. "He is completely free to determine his daily schedule. It's also up to him to get in food and other supplies."

Police in Gstaad said they might block traffic and restrict access into Polanski's neighborhood if reporters proved disruptive.

A Swiss court ruled last week that Polanski can be set free on $4.5-million bail.

Polanski is expected to be released any day now. A court will eventually rule whether Polanski should be extradited to Los Angeles to face sentencing for having illegal sex with a 13-year-old more than three decades ago. Swiss justice officials repeatedly had denied his bail requests, saying he is a flight risk.

Under the terms of the bail, Polanski, 76, will be electronically monitored and have his phone calls monitored as well. Gstaad, a village of 2,500 with mountain views, has long been known as a celebrity hangout, having been home to Elizabeth Taylor, Roger Moore and David Niven, among others.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Roman Polanski's chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, where the 76-year-old director will be restricted. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Jay]

I hope our governor is paying attention here; this is a great idea to alleviate prison overcrowding. House Arrest for all but our most violent criminals / rapists. Why should taxpayers pay to feed and house convicted rapists? They can arrange to get in their own food and supplies while surfing the net & chatting long distance, just like Polanski.

[jan]

Polanski had more than "illegal sex", he raped and sodomized a 13 year old girl. He then made a plea agreement and was convicted of a lesser charge. Please do not minimize the nature of his offense.

[Ronan]

Can I be put in jail there also. That looks like a real tough environment to wait extradition, but I think I can survive.

I think it is an absolute travesty that this child raper has this much leeway. Bring him back to the US and we will get him a nice jail cell with a man rapist. He will then know how it feels.

[E. David]

It wasn't so much "illegal sex" as drugging and rapping an adolescent.

[Rainmain]

I think he should be laid down on the ground and punished the way they do it in China. He is no hero.

[Jane Smith]

I would like to correct the author o fthis article. The crime was "rape", not "sex". The victim was drugged, repeatedly said no, and then the criminal anally raped her. This is not sex, and I find it offensive that a journalist would call it "sex".

[laura d]

This article is written deceptively, starting out saying Polanski will have unlimited ability to make phone calls and unlimited Internet access - but THEN at the end, adds that his calls (and undoubtedly emails etc.) will be monitored.
So you'll probably get people outraged because they don't read through to the end - which may be the intended slant of this article.

Also, saying he can throw parties if he wants may be gratuitous - he's unlikely to given his mental state, and having some friends over for dinner to cheer him up isn't quite the same. OF COURSE if Cooley had his way, Polanski WOULD have every moment of his life not only monitored but be shacked to his bed and dining chair and toilet, no matter the cost, no matter how many DNA rape kits are NOT being tested by the county because they each cost $1000, and even though they represent rapists and other violent attackers still on the streets posing imminent danger, with victims' justice going unmet.

[Joanne]

And, it will make it easier for him to slip over the border to France, thus letting him escape justice forever.

[Michael Ross]

$4.2 mil bail or not, Little Roman's gonna go boogaloo back to France as soon as it's arranged. Would you take a chance on getting several years in a California prison at age 76? Or even 26, if you knew you could hide in luxurious plain sight in France for the rest of your life? Just another example of how there's one set of laws for the Rich & Famous, and another for all the rest of us. Too bad - I hoping that he'd get the Bubba Treatment in the joint and find out how his victim must have felt with him. Check out the victim's testimony in her 1977 Grand Jury statement on smokinggun.com (before she was shamelessly bribed into a converted Polanski Supporter, and even appeared as a "celebrity" at the premiere of "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" a couple of years back).

[MikeOHara]

No teenage girls, though, right?

[Where is the justice?]

Hey Roman, since you have access to the internet now, I have a message for you...we look forward to seeing you back here in LA to face the justice that you oh so cowardly fled many years ago. There are lots of "gentlemen" in prison who are looking forward to speaking with you about your actions with a 13 year old girl, no matter how long ago the crime occured. Face up to what you did and stop trying to justify it.

[Beltway Greg]

"Broad freedoms" Isn't that what got him into this mess in the first place.

[abby]

Nice to know the rich keep getting to do what they please --

No matter the crime -- they don't do time....

Disgusting.

[candy]

It is disgusting how this man committed a crime and gets away with because of MONEY AND POWER. This is the reality of our world if you have that you could od anything you want

[kristin]

I guess it's true: the rich are different from you and me.

[robert]

wonder how he would feel if some one touched his daughter in that way i mean RAPED this little girl.......13 wow.......see what happens when you have celebrity and money...........I still wonder if jack nicholson was home or not when this happened....you know how they all cover up for one another.....jack will do anything that has a vagina.....let the boys at la county have there way with him......nobody likes a CHILD RAPIST........let se what its like to bent over and abused.....with no control.......if it was my daughter i would of already of found you RAPIST.......

[M. Getty]

I'm satisfied with this decision. We don't need another inmate sucking off our tax dollars in the U.S. I've always wondered about 'The 13 Year Old Girl'....

Where was her Mother while Mr. P. was alleging molesting the child?
You know that's something to consider.

[zeke]

What a joke.. rape a 13 year old then let out on bail..this guy will be back in France in no time.. this guy needs to be in prison for the rest of his life..im sure the inmates will know what to do with him...zeke

[Richard Ivey]

And when is Osama bin Laden going to be arrested and extradicted for his crimes? Do we get a timetable for that? Instead we just send thousands more soldiers to their doom in Afghanistan at $1 million per soldier per year.

[JJ]

And of course he's going to skip -- and the Swiss authorities are essentially inviting him to do so. From this article in the London Times, in regards to the 'monitoring' bracelet he'll be required to wear, "While the bracelet will help police to monitor if Mr Polanski is staying put at his chalet during his house arrest, experts said that if he fled, the set-up was not equipped with global positioning system and would therefore not help to track him down. 'The canton of Bern uses the first generation system,' said Jonas Peter Weber, a professor at the University of Bern. 'We can only check if the person is at home. If the alarm goes off and no police is in the vicinity , the person will be able to flee,' he said."

Because of course, the guy who's already skipped bail once isn't a flight risk, therefore they couldn't be bothered to borrow newer tech from another canton ...

[Fed Up]

Ah, the life of the rich and infamous.

[Bob "White noise" MacDonald]

You mean like the robber barons on Wall St?

[cheryl]

HE HAS TO PAY HIS PENANCE, LIKE MANY OTHERS EVEN IF SHE HAS FORGIVEN HIM, OTHERWISE MANY CELEBRITIES WILL DO THE SAME AND GET AWAY WITH IT. HE SODOMIZED THIS CHILD AND TOOK HER FREEDOM. WE AMERICANS KILL PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FOR THE NAMESAKE CALLED "FREEDOM?" NOW WHERE IS THE REAL JUSTICE? IF HE WAS A BLACK MAN LIKE THE OLD DAYS HE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD ALONG TIME AGO

[mizzle]

I'd love to be sentenced to house arrest at Polanski's house. But I won't rape a little girl to get it.

[bill]

the moral of that story is that it's ok to do what he did and then flee for 30 years.