Polanski's Lawyers File for his Release
Updated at 6:03 a.m. Eastern.
The Swiss Criminal Court said Tuesday that imprisoned director Roman Polanski had filed a motion requesting to be released.
The court said in a statement that it would make a decision "in the next weeks." Any verdict is subject to appeal from both sides.
A lawyer representing Polanski said earlier that his legal team would file the motion, possibly as early as Tuesday.
Herve Temime told The Associated Press that Polanski's representatives had hoped to hand in all necessary documents to Swiss authorities on Monday.
They were unable to do so but he says "it will happen today, perhaps this morning."
Polanski was arrested Saturday as he arrived in Zurich to receive an award from a film festival.
The United States has been seeking his extradition for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Polanski has hired Swiss attorney Lorenz Erni to represent him in Switzerland, according to the law firm Eschmann & Erni.
Polanski seems most likely to spend several months in detention, unless he agrees to forgo any challenge to his extradition to the United States. Under a 1990 accord between Switzerland and the U.S., Washington has 60 days to submit a formal request for his transfer. Rulings in a similar dispute four years ago over Russia's former atomic energy minister Yevgeny Adamov confirmed that subjects should be held in custody throughout the procedure.
That means the procedure for extradition could also be lengthy for the United States. Its request for Polanski's transfer must first be examined by the Swiss Justice Ministry, and once approved it can be appealed at a number of courts.
Polanski has lived in his native France for the past three decades where authorities could not arrest him, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy. He is married to French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children.
He continued his work, garnering a Best Director Oscar in abstentia for his 2002 film "The Pianist."
If brought back to the U.S., he may face time behind bars.
"The big issue is whether it would have been better for him to negotiate a surrender when he had the chance," Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson said. "Now it has become an international incident and the district attorney may be under pressure not to negotiate a sweetheart deal. They've gone to all this trouble of getting Switzerland involved. It could make it harder on him."