New Polanski bail offer to include lots of cash: lawyer
Last Updated: Sunday, November 1, 2009 | 10:01 AM ET
CBC News
The French lawyer for director Roman Polanski, who is waiting in a Swiss jail for a decision on his extradition to the U.S. on a 32-year-old sex case, says a new bail offer of "very, very significant" cash will be made.
Roman Polanski is pictured at the Chino Mens Institute in Chino, Calif., Dec. 17, 1977. After pleading guilty to having sex with a minor, he fled the U.S. the following year. (Nick Ut/Associated Press) Herve Temime told France-Info radio Sunday the bail offer will be filed Monday, just days after Swiss authorities rejected a previous offer on Friday.
Officials have said the first offer did not include cash.
Swiss authorities also said they consider the 76-year-old filmmaker a high flight risk.
The Oscar-winning director behind The Pianist, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown was detained at Zurich's airport on Sept. 26 as per a U.S. arrest warrant. He was supposed to attend a film festival there and receive a lifetime achievement honour.
The French citizen fled the U.S. in 1978, a year after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He has lived in self-imposed exile until his arrest.
Polanski's lawyers have claimed misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had agreed to a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
They have petitioned the U.S. Appeals Court in California to overturn a lower tribunal's refusal to throw out his case.
With files from The Associated Press
