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Hollywood rallies as Polanski bail decision looms

Swiss authorities expect to rule this week on a bail request by Roman Polanski as he fights US extradition on child sex charges, with Hollywood`s finest demanding his release.

Geneva: Swiss authorities expect to rule this week on a bail request by Roman Polanski as he fights US extradition on child sex charges, with Hollywood`s finest demanding his release.
The Oscar-winning director is facing a lengthy legal battle to avoid justice in the United States in connection with a 1977 sex case involving a 13-year-old girl after he was arrested on an international warrant in Zurich 10 days ago. Polanski`s lawyers have said they lodged two requests for his release, one with the Federal Justice Office and the other with the Switzerland`s top criminal court. "We will learn during the week of the decision by the Federal Justice Office," office spokesman Folco Galli told AFP, although bail is rarely granted in extradition cases according to the Swiss Justice Ministry. Polanski has also asked the Federal Criminal Tribunal to overturn his arrest over the decades-old child sex case in California and for conditional bail pending a decision. The tribunal has not indicated when it will make a ruling but Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that she hoped for a swift decision. Both the court and administrative decisions are open to appeal. The 76-year-old French-Polish film-maker, who is regarded as a fugitive in the United States, was arrested on September 26 as he arrived in Zurich to collect a lifetime achievement award at a local film festival. US prosecutors have 30 days left to file their formal extradition request in Switzerland, with a growing number of Hollywood celebrities voicing dismay over his arrest. Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody, the US actor who starred in Polanski`s Oscar-winning "The Pianist," are among over 700 cinema luminaries to have signed a petition calling for his release. Top US directors Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese were among the first to sign, followed by the likes of Michael Mann, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Darren Aronofsky, and Terry Gilliam. A dual citizen of both France and Poland, Polanski fled the United States in 1978 having agreed in a plea bargain to admit to "unlawful sexual intercourse" with the girl, who testified that he had drugged and sodomised her. The petition, by the French performance and visual artists association, SACD, does not comment directly on the crime for which Polanski was convicted, instead expressing outrage at his arrest at a film festival. "It seems inadmissible... that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by the police to apprehend him," said the association on its website. Poland meanwhile unveiled a star dedicated to Polanski on a new `walk of fame` in Warsaw, quoting the director as saying that "Nothing is too shocking to me." His is one of 12 stars on the walk of fame dedicated to giants of the film world, including some who have petitioned for Polanski`s release, such as Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz. Bureau Report