Published Friday, November 27, 2009 6:05 AM

House arrest for Polanski

Associated Press

GENEVA -- Roman Polanski will be moved from jail to house arrest at his Alpine chalet as soon as he posts $4.5 million bail and meets other conditions set by a Swiss court, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.

The ministry said it would not appeal a decision by the Swiss Criminal Court to release the 76-year-old director, adding that he can leave jail after he pays bail, surrenders his identity documents and has an electronic monitoring system installed and tested.

The announcement means Polanski will be able to continue his fight against extradition to the United States in a 1977 sex case from the comfort of his $1.6 million chalet in the exclusive winter resort of Gstaad.

The bail decision was a win for the director after a series of legal setbacks following his Sept. 26 arrest on a U.S. warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.

Polanski was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl during a modeling shoot in 1977. In exchange for Polanski pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation.

After being released early, Polanski fled the United States in 1978, and has lived in France since.

The Swiss will decide on extraditing Polanski in the next "couple of weeks," Swiss ministry spokesman Folco Galli said.

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