Roman Polanski officially "a free man"

As to the reasoning behind Switzerland's decision, authorities say it had to do with U.S. prosecutors who declined to provide confidential testimony supplied by Roger Gunson, the original district attorney who handled the case, which the Justice Ministry said should prove that Polanski had adequately served his original sentence to 90 days of psychiatric evaluation, thereby invalidating the basis for the extradition request. Swiss authorities stressed that the issue was “not about deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty,” but that it had come down to “persistent doubts concerning the presentation of the facts of the case.”

On the other hand, they also acknowledged that “the wishes of the victim, Samantha Geimer”—who long ago called for dismissal of the charges against Polanski—had factored into their decision. It probably also came down to not wanting to be the nation that “[threw] Polanski to the lions,” in the words of French Cultural Minister Frederic Mitterand, seeing as the Swiss government further admitted that “national interests were taken into consideration.” Whatever the actual reasoning behind the legalese, the point is this: Polanski can now “move freely” (within countries that don't want to get involved, that is), and even though long after he’s dead and gone, we’ll probably still be talking about his guilt and drawing lines in the moral sand over whether he should have been punished, it seems as though he’s officially dodged the bullet on this one.