Samantha Geimer, the victim in the rape case against Roman Polanski, is speaking out for the first time since Polanski was captured by the Swiss authorities and almost extradited back to Los Angeles earlier this year to face the sentence he fled from thirty years ago.

Geimer said she was "relieved" Polanski was not forced to return to LA, to face charges stemming from a 1977 incident in which the director raped the then 13-year-old at the home of actor Jack Nicholson.

After having to replay the painful events of her childhood all over again, she said she felt his "coming back would be a thousand times worse" and that she's been "so much more damaged by the court system and the media" than Polanski, therefore it's easy to forgive the director.

We should all be so forgiving!

Roman Polanski, wife Emmanuelle Seigner and their two children attended the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland yesterday; this marks the director's first public appearance since being freed earlier this week after Switzerland refused a US extradition request.

Polanski came to watch Emmanuelle perform at the music festival, and though he's free to roam around Switzerland, he still faces an Interpol arrest warrant effective in 188 countries for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Yesterday we spotted Roman Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner lunching in Paris, and now that the famed director is reportedly on his way home to France, it looks like she's perked up a bit!

As we reported earlier this week, officials in Switzerland have thrown out a request by the US to extradite director Polanski to face rape charges, and he is no longer under house arrest at his vacation home in Gstaad. But when will he come home?

Officials in Switzerland have thrown out a request by the US to extradite director Roman Polanski to face charges stemming from a 1977 incident in which he had sex with a 13-year-old girl.

A spokesperson for the Swiss Justice Ministry said: "The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a fault in the US extraditionary request."

Polanski has been under house arrest at his vacation home in Gstaad since he was arrested last September en route to a film festival in Switzerland.

The director is expected to now return to his family in France.

Roman Polanski is being accused of sexual assault yet again.

Just moments ago British actress Charlotte Lewis, who appeared in Polanski's 1986 film Pirates came forward to claim she was victimized by Polanski in Paris in 1982 when she was just 16 years old, while he was a fugitive from his 1977 rape trial in the US.

Accompanied by her attorney Gloria Allred, Lewis held a press conference in LA, where Lewis said Polanski "sexually abused me in the worst possible way when I was just 16, four years after he fled the US."

Lewis claims the director "forced himself upon me" in his Parisian apartment and Allred says her client "is ready to testify under oath if and when that is necessary."

"I came forward because I heard Polanski is fighting his return," Lewis said. "His legal team portrayed his assault as an isolated incident," but Lewis says that's clearly not the case. Allred says they've reported it to the Los Angeles authorities, but since Lewis is British and the alleged offense took place in Paris, it's not clear what jurisdiction they'd have, if any.

The Oscar-winning director is still fighting previous sexual assault charges. Polanski is accused of giving drugs to Samantha Geimer, then aged 13, and raping her at the home of actor Jack Nicholson back in 1977. Polanski was indicted on six felony counts and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Polanski has been living under house arrest at his Swiss chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad. Back in 1978, he fled the U.S. on the eve of his sentencing date, and authorities have been trying to get him back ever since.

Samantha Geimer, Roman Polanski's victim of sexual assault in 1977, has repeatedly sought to have this much-discussed fugitive case dismissed, but prosecutors continue to argue against her wishes.

In a court filing to the California Second District Court of Appeal on Friday, LA County prosecutors argue that Geimer cannot ask for the 32-year-old sex case to be dismissed. They're also urging the appeals court to reject her requests to have the case heard in another county and unseal recent testimony by a former prosecutor.

Why? Because doing so would "fundamentally alter the way in which crimes are prosecuted."

Geimer's camp cites a 2008 constitutional amendment, AKA Marsy's Law, which gives victims more input into criminal cases.

Which way is justice better served - by granting Geimer's request or simply going by the books?

The court has not yet ruled on Polanski's appeal...

Too bad he wasn't able to accept it in person!

The 76-year-old director - currently under house arrest in Switzerland - won the Silver Bear as best director at the Berlin International Film Festival for The Ghost Writer, his latest film.

Roman Polanski was convicted of having sex with a minor in 1977 and only now is beginning to face the consequences.

Ghost Writer producer Alain Sarde accepted the award on Polanski's behalf, saying: "I'm sure Roman will be very happy."

I'm sure he'll be even happier if all the charges are dropped, too!

This has been a long time coming!

A judge ruled this Friday that director Roman Polanski, accused of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in 1978, must return to the U.S. so as to not "manipulate the justice system" any further.

Polanski spent over 60 days in a Swiss jail before being transferred to house arrest in early December.

The director's attorneys, as well as an attorney for the victim, have argued Polanski should be sentenced absentia.

While the judge has ruled Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles courtroom, his decision will likely be appealed.