Filmmaker Polanski Gets Special Treatment in Swiss Jail
Security experts on Saturday started preparing Roman Polanski's Alpine chalet for the movie director's house arrest while Swiss authorities consider whether to extradite him to the United States.
A Hummer bearing the sign in French "DR Securite Services" was parked outside the empty three-story building Saturday morning, while three men and a woman took photographs of the property and spent about an hour inside.
They declined to say what they were doing, but the company handles a range of services from video surveillance to alarm installations and armored doors.
One of the key court-imposed conditions of Polanski's house arrest is that he be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet that would detect if he tries to leave the chalet, which would cost him the $4.5 million bail he is required to post.
Authorities require that the bracelet be working before Polanski is moved to the chalet, probably Monday. Until then, Polanski would remain in a jail outside Zurich, Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said. Officials declined to say how they would transfer Polanski, The Associated Press reports.
The filmmaker, 76, was allowed regular calls to his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, and his attorneys, according to Yussi Akram, an inmate who served time with Polanski. Prison guards also kept the "Rosemary's Baby" director away from other inmates, Akram told Zurich’s Radio One.
Polanski's cell phone was equipped with an emergency button to summon guards, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Legal experts say the bail will only prolong the decision over whether Polanski should be extradited to L.A. to face sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The filmmaker was accused of raping Samantha Geimer during a photo shoot in 1977 after giving her champagne and a sedative.
Polanski was indicted on six felony counts of rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse.
He fled to France in 1978 on the day of his sentencing and has been living there ever since, New York Daily News informs.
