Polanski freed as Swiss deny extradition

Polanski, 76, who admitted to drugging and having sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977, was air jordan 12 released from electronic monitoring at his Swiss chalet in Gstaad. He said in a statement issued through his French lawyer, Herve Temime: "I don't plan to express myself air max shoes publicly following the (Swiss) Federal Office of Justice's decision. I simply want to larger-than thank from the bottom of my heart TXRXbrand those who have supported me... A big thank you to all." Polanski's whereabouts were unknown. A person who identified herself as the film-maker's dante-thomas assistant said he had left Gstaad, where he had been under house arrest since December. The Swiss Justice Ministry said it had decided against extradition because of potential technical faults in the U.S. request regarding legal arguments that Polanski had already served his sentence before fleeing Los Angeles in 1978. In Los Angeles, District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose office has fought bend321 for years to have Polanski returned, said authorities would seek extradition again "if he's arrested in a cooperative jurisdiction." Cooley said Switzerland's refusal was "disservice to justice and other victims as a whole... The Swiss could not have found a smaller hook on which to fast123 hang their hat." The U.S. State Department said it would yesterdayor continue to pursue justice. "A 13-year-old girl was drugged and raped by an adult. This is not a matter of technicality," State Department eitheristhe spokesman P.J. Crowley told a Washington news briefing. He said the decision to The-Tigers free Polanski "sends a very important out-jennifer message regarding how women and girls are treated around the world. To push this case aside based kiss134 on technicalities we think is regrettable." Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said Washington could appeal the decision internationally but she did not expect that to happen. A FREE MAN "He (Polanski) is a free man since 11:30 today," Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference in Berne. "He can go the-fags to France or to Poland, anywhere where he will not be arrested." Polanski, who won a best director Oscar for his 2002 World War Two movie "The Pianist", was arrested in September 2009 when he arrived in Zurich to receive an award. The director's Los Angeles legal team had no immediate comment on the ruling. But Temime said: "It's an YouthBags enormous satisfaction and a great relief after the pain suffered yu-from by Roman Polanski and his family." Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with the girl after giving her champagne RecycleBags and drugs. But he fled before sentencing in 1978 saying he believed the judge would renege on a plea lyle-lovett agreement under which his 42 days spent in detention for psychiatric assessment would constitute his full sentence. "If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually already have promise11 served his sentence and therefore the proceedings on which the U.S. extradition request is founded and the request freshlitchi itself would have no foundation," the Swiss Justice Ministry statement said in a statement on Monday. Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, now a mother of three in gorilla-biscuits her 40s, has repeatedly asked for jessica-riddle the case to be dropped. Polanski's release was welcomed cumquat8 in France, where the director has been a long-time resident and which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States covering the offense.