House Arrest Ended, Polanski Appears in Public

(AP)  The film director Roman Polanski, free after nine months of detention, arrived Saturday at the Montreux Jazz Festival in his first public appearance since being released this week from house arrest.

Polanski, 76, arrived Saturday evening in a sport utility vehicle with tinted windows. When he emerged, he brushed his fingers through his hair - a trademark gesture - then was ushered into an elevator. Security personnel protected him from an eager crush of photographers.

Polanski's wife, the actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, performed shortly after his arrival, wearing a flannel shirt, a black hat and jeans.

"That was the theme to 'Rosemary's Baby,'" she said after her first song - a reference to the 1968 film directed by Polanski.

The Oscar-winning director was freed Monday from house arrest when the Swiss government refused to deport him to the United States.

He still faces an Interpol warrant in effect for 188 countries for a 1977 child sex case.

Swiss authorities allowed him to spend most of his detention at his chalet in the Swiss mountain resort of Gstaad.

In an interview Saturday with Swiss television, excerpts of which were broadcast on France-2 television, Polanski thanked "the millions of people who kept sending me messages of support during those nine long months."

"I would also certainly thank my wife Emmanuelle (and) my children, without whom I would have never been able to hold onto my dignity and perseverance," he said.

"For the moment, I'm happy to be free and to be able to do the things I was kept from doing," he said.

He said his son cut off the electronic bracelet that Swiss authorities had required him to wear while he was under house arrest.

"They told me to throw it away, that's it," Polanski said of the authorities. His son "couldn't stand it anymore," so he was given "the privilege" of removing the tracking device.

[oldnuke69]

He took a plea to "unlawful sexual intercourse" with a 13-year old girl. That is statutory rape anyplace in the US. So he DID rape this girl. It is irrelevant whether she wants him punished or not. He committed a crime and didn't do the time.

[cbsblogger]

The entertainment media is all abuzz on what Mel Gibson allegedly SAID. They and Hollywood overlooked what the child rapist Polanski actually DID, only because he is one of them. They had the audacity to claim that he should be allowed to run free.

It is not much of a stretch to suggest that Polanski is right at home in Hollywood as it is made up of virulently racist self serving, self promoting individuals said to lack in morals.

[mike 901]

He's out dining with Woody Allen.

[rwsmith29456]

What it boils down to is that the Swiss have written off the victim and protected Polanski. And I very much doubt that he would face a 'lynch mob' if he were brought here.

[voxpopulus]

This IS a lynch mob. You simply do not care about legal process.

[Farver4girls]

The Swiss seem to respect the victim's feelings more than the L.A. prosecutors do. Polanski's victim has publicly stated that she has forgiven Polanski. She wants the case against him to be dismissed because it is embarrassing to her and to her family.

[voxpopulus]

"If I was that 13 year old girls father (the girl he raped) ..." Perhaps. But if you were that girl's father, maybe you wouldn't send her out alone with a man to take semi-porn pictures you knew were going to be on the cover of a men's magazine. And rape is not what he pleaded guilt to. If you are going to venture an opinion, at least make it an informed one.

[RobAla]

I would not have sent her. However, nothing excuses this predator.

[voxpopulus]

And what, pray, would you have done to the boyfriend she was already having sex with, or the people who had supplied her with the drugs she had already taken? Polanski could have fought this case in court. The reason he did not was that the judge falsely offered a plea bargain. It was never established that this was rape. Polanski's plea, and the one the court ? which some of you are claiming to respect ? accepted was to "unlawful sexual intercourse". Specifically, from the transcript: "One, that one March 10th 1977, you committed an act of sexual intercourse"; two, that the act of sexual intercourse was with the complaining witness in this case; three, that she was under the age of 18; and four, that she was not your wife." Amazing how people saying he pled guilty to rape and pedophilia have NOT even read up on the case they claim to care so much about.

[voxpopulus]

The Swiss have every right not to extradite someone who did not get a fair trial in the first place (even according to the then prosecution) and who faces a lynch mob rather than a fair trial now. This lynch mob mentality makes me ashamed for our nation. If he had a fair trial and sentencing in the original case, this would not have happened. And I'd even have supported a jail term then. But this whole mess makes OUR justice system a farce.

[mike 901]

It ain't over yet Polanski. They'll find your ass.

[NB62]

Actually it is over for he will just return to France

[RobAla]

If I was that 13 year old girls father (the girl he raped), I would be tempted to hire a bounty hunted to nab him and drag his sorry butt back to the US. I have no use for the stinking Swiss government.

[jadamslh]

Another "oops" by legal authorities [see: Lockerbie bomber] allowing a rich or politically connected person to go free. The families of the victims may console themselves that they got their day in court.