Extradition case based on a lie, says Polanski

Film director Roman Polanski broke his silence on Sunday over the bid to extradite him to face child sex charges, saying the case is based on a lie and accused authorities of wanting his head on a plate.

In a statement, Polanski said that he asked "only to be treated fairly like anyone else" and had previously told his lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum but added that he now felt compelled to speak out.

"I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie," Polanski said in the statement released to supporters in Paris.

"I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago."

The Oscar-winning director is under house arrest in Switzerland after being arrested in Zurich in September on a US arrest warrant for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

A California appeals court quashed a bid last month by the 76-year-old Oscar winner to be tried in absentia for the child sex case, apparently exhausting his opportunities for appeals in the US.

Polanski is alleged to have plied a girl called Samatha Geimer with champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.

He was initially charged with six felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of a trial.