Polanski Breaks Silence, Blasts Prosecutors

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, breaking a months-long silence, said today the US is demanding his extradition from Switzerland largely to serve him "on a platter to the media." Polanski, who is under house arrest in his Swiss home, 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." Polanski suggests the case against him is unjust and riddled with problems. Each argument begins with the phrase: "I can remain silent no longer." Swiss authorities are trying to decide whether to extradite Polanski to Los Angeles, where he pleaded guilty to statutory rape for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. (More Roman Polanski stories.)