Roman Polanski is a free man - officials in Switzerland have thrown out a request to extradite him to the U.S. for sentencing on a child-sex charge.
The Rosemary's Baby director has been under house arrest at a luxury chalet in Gstaad since he was seized in Zurich last September (09) en route to a film festival.
U.S. authorities demanded the film-maker be returned to the States to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He pleaded guilty to the offence but fled to Europe in 1978 before facing a court.
But Swiss officials announced on Monday (12Jul10) that the extradition has now been turned down - because they cannot rule out the possibility that there is a "fault" in the request.
At a press conference in Swiss capital Bern, justice ministry official Eveline Widner-Schlumpf said, "The Swiss justice ministry will not extradite Roman Polanski to the United States. The Franco-Polish film-maker will not be extradited to the United States, and the measures of restriction on his liberty have been lifted... Polanski is now a free man... (This is) not about deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty."
Following the announcement, a spokesman for the director told Sky News, "It's an enormous satisfaction and great relief after the pain suffered by Roman Polanski and his family."
The decision means Polanski will be allowed to leave the boundary of his Gstaad chalet for the first time in more than nine months, and an electronic monitoring tag has been removed from his ankle. He is expected to return to his family home in France.