Swiss reject Polanski’s offer for higher bail

October 31, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss authorities rejected a new higher offer of bail from imprisoned director Roman Polanski, saying Friday they still think the risk is too high that he would flee the country.

Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the offer was not made in cash and failed to address concerns that the 76-year-old filmmaker would flee Switzerland as he awaits a decision on whether he will be extradited to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

“We still consider the flight risk as high,” Galli told The Associated Press.

Polanski has been in Swiss custody since his arrest Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime award from a film festival.

He is fighting extradition to Los Angeles, where he is wanted for fleeing sentencing 31 years ago, but has suffered a string of legal setbacks in Switzerland so far.

Polanski filed his latest request on Monday, Galli said.

The director now has 10 days to appeal the decision to the Swiss Criminal Court, which has already once ordered Polanski kept in jail despite an offer of his Gstaad apartment as collateral, and house arrest and electronic monitoring as conditions of his freedom.

A lawyer for Polanski said the filmmaker would take the new bail request to the courts. “This is absolutely what we want,” said Herve Temime.

Legal experts say Polanski has little chance of being released from prison regardless of the bail he posts because of his long history as a fugitive.

The director of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” was accused of raping the 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977.

He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.

Polanski pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.

In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation.

Polanski was released after 42 days by an evaluator but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the 90 days.

Polanski then fled the country Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be sentenced.