Polanski chalet secured for sentence

Gstaad : Security experts yesterday started preparing Roman Polanski's Alpine chalet for the movie director's house arrest while Swiss authorities consider whether to extradite him to the United States.

A Hummer bearing the sign in French "DR Securite Services" was parked outside the empty three-story building yesterday morning, while three men and a woman took photographs of the property and spent about an hour inside.

They declined to say what they were doing, but the company handles a range of services from video surveillance to alarm installations and armoured doors.

$4.5m bail

One of the key court-imposed conditions of Polanski's house arrest is that he be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet that would detect if he tries to leave the chalet, which would cost him the $4.5 million (Dh16.52 million) bail he is required to post.

Authorities require that the bracelet be working before Polanski is moved to the chalet, probably tomorrow. Until then, Polanski would remain in a jail outside Zurich, Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said. Officials declined to say how they would transfer Polanski.

A press agency photographer was ordered to leave the area near the chalet yesterday.

"You are on private property," a man from the security group said.

The Swiss Justice Ministry is still deciding whether to extradite Polanski to the US for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. Authorities in Los Angeles want him sentenced after 31 years as a fugitive.