Poland summons Belarus diplomat over reporter arrest

(WARSAW) - Poland's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the Belarus ambassador over Minsk's arrest of a reporter working for a Polish daily accused of defaming hardline President Alexander Lukashenko.

Warsaw demanded the "immediate release of Andrei Pochobut", a journalist for Poland's leading liberal Gazeta Wyborcza daily, according to a Friday foreign ministry statement.

The ministry also warned the incident provoked the kind of "self-isolation which is making relations between Belarus authorities and the EU more and more difficult... and risks greater sanctions" against Minsk.

Andrei Pochobut's arrest Thursday in the Polish border city of Grodny came a year after he was handed a suspended sentence for articles written for Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza -- one of the country's most widely-read publications.

The Belarus Association of Journalists said security officers detained Pochobut in his apartment for a "repeat offense" of his earlier defamation charge.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia voiced support for Warsaw's position on the arrest on Friday.

Tusk also said he would raise the issue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later the same day during a meeting on the margins of Friday's Euro 2012 football face off between Germany and Greece.