Switzerland has denied the United States extradition request for famed film director Roman Polanski. The Swiss government released a statement Monday which cites a possible error in the American application for extradition and states that Polanski is now a free man.
Polanski pled guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, but fled to France before he could be sentenced. Swiss authorities jailed the filmmaker in Zurich in September 2009 under an international warrant but later allowed him to move to his chalet under house arrest on bail of $4.5 million pending a decision on his extradition.