ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — Gone are the red carpet and the luxury accommodations, at least for a while. Film director Roman Polanski will probably remain in prison for several months as he fights deportation to the U.S. in a 3-decade-old sexual assault case.
His Swiss attorney, one of the country's top criminal lawyers, filed a request in court Tuesday that Polanski be set free while his extradition case winds its way through the judicial system.
But such releases are rare for nonresidents in Switzerland, who are generally deemed to be flight risks. And given the lengthy extradition and appeals process, Polanski faces jail time far in excess of the 42 days he spent behind bars in Los Angeles back when the charges against him arose.
"We are talking about three, four months easily," said Peter Cosandey, a former prosecutor here with extensive experience in extradition cases. "If he's not released on bail as requested by his lawyers, then he has to remain in prison."
Exactly where Polanski is being held has been kept secret for security reasons, which is normal procedure in Switzerland. Diplomats at the Polish Embassy, who met with Polanski on Monday, declined to disclose his location "to not make it easier for paparazzi to find him," Consul Marek Wieruszewski said in a telephone interview from Bern, the Swiss capital.
Polanski has both Polish and French citizenship. French diplomats have also been in contact with the director.
He is entitled to unlimited access to his high-profile Swiss lawyer, Lorenz Erni, and to consular officials. But beyond that Polanski is living the life of any other jailed suspect, confined to a single cell that he most likely has to himself and allowed an hour of outdoor exercise a day.
"He stressed that he's being treated very well . . . with respect and even some sympathy to his situation," Wieruszewski said. "Conditions are good."
Polanski's arrest Saturday night, while in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival, has inspired impassioned debate across Europe and in North America.
Artists and members of the film world on both sides of the Atlantic have rallied behind him, demanding his release, as have government officials in France and Poland. A letter from the Polish and French foreign ministers to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asking her to intervene in the matter was due to be delivered in Washington on Tuesday.
