A security service has been visiting the Swiss chalet owned by director Roman Polanski, who is expected to be released into house arrest soon.
Polanski’s posh holiday home in the ski resort of Gstaad is being prepared for the director.
Security experts were at the home on Saturday, likely installing surveillance equipment.
Swiss authorities have agreed to house arrest for the 76-year-old auteur, who was arrested in September when he arrived in Zurich from France to attend a film festival.
Polanski’s House Arrest
* The director will have to arrange to get food and other supplies into his holiday chalet.
* He can do whatever he wants and will be on his own schedule.
* He can get the mail outside the house, hang out in the garden and he will have access to the telephone and email.
* Polanski is also allowed to have as many visitors as he wants. He can even hold parties.
* He has to pay $2,000 US for the monitor installation as well as a small monthly maintenance fee for the electronic ankle bracelet.
* No special police protection or presence will be provided.
Polanski was seized on an arrest warrant connected to his 1977 conviction in the U.S. for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The filmmaker fled the U.S. before he could be sentenced and took refuge in France where he has citizenship.
He is fighting extradition to the U.S. and his lawyers in the U.S. are arguing on Dec. 10 to have the charges dismissed permanently.
Polanski’s house arrest could happen as early as Monday. He is posting $4.5 million US in bail, made possible by using his Paris apartment as security. He will also be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet that would send out alarms if he tries to leave the chalet.
Meanwhile, Polanski’s sister-in-law Mathilde Seigner is thanking French President Nicolas Sarkozy for helping to win the director’s release from a Swiss prison.
“The President has been very effective,” Seigner told Le Parisien newspaper recently. She is the sister of actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who is married to Polanski.
Mathilde Seigner declined to say what exactly Sarkozy did. Back in September, the French leader was widely criticized for his negative reaction to Polanski’s arrest, urging for the director’s release.
