Roman Polanski breaks his silence

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, breaking a months-long silence, said Sunday that the U.S. is demanding his extradition from Switzerland on a 33-year-old sex case largely to serve him "on a platter to the media."

Polanski, who is under house arrest in his Alpine Swiss chalet, laid out his case against extradition on an online magazine run by one of his staunchest supporters, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.

"I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life," he wrote. "I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else."

One of Polanski's complaints is that Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, "who is handling this case and has requested (the) extradition, is himself campaigning for election and needs media publicity!" Cooley is running for California attorney general.

Swiss authorities are trying to decide whether to extradite Polanski to Los Angeles for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski was arrested seven months ago as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.

The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was put behind bars for more than two months before being transferred on $4.5 million bail to house arrest in the luxury resort of Gstaad.

Polanski wrote in the online magazine, La Regle du Jeu, that he had mortgaged his apartment to pay the bail.

Three decades ago, Polanski was accused of plying his victim with champagne and part of a Quaalude during a modeling shoot and raping her.

He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy. He later pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

What happened after that is a subject of dispute.

The defense says the now deceased judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, had agreed in meetings with attorneys to sentence Polanski to a 90-day diagnostic study and nothing more.

But the judge later changed his mind and summoned Polanski for further sentencing - at which time he fled to his native France, attorneys said.

Polanski claimed the judge "betrayed" him and wanted "to gain himself some publicity at my expense." He said the request for his extradition is "founded on a lie."