European ministers to call for Polanski release

The foreign ministers of France and Poland plan to ask the US to help free the Franco-Polish film director, Roman Polanski, after his arrest in Switzerland.

Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Sunday (27 September) told the Polish Press Agency that he and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, aim to submit a joint appeal to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

"[We are] considering approaching the American authorities over the possibility of the US president proclaiming an act of clemency which would settle the matter once and for all," he said.

The French foreign ministry issued a statement saying that "Bernard Kouchner has contacted [Swiss foreign minister] Micheline Calmy-Rey to express the French authorities' wishes that Mr Polanski's rights be fully respected and that the matter quickly finds a favourable outcome."

Swiss police detained the 76-year old film-maker after he flew in on Saturday to claim a prize at the Zurich Film Festival.

He is being held pending possible extradition to the US in a case dating back to 1978, when he fled the country while awaiting sentencing for having sex with a girl aged 13.

Mr Polanski was born in Paris and is a French citizen. His family moved to Poland shortly before World War II, where he lived for most of his youth.

His arrest also sparked protest from French and Polish cultural personalities, mostly on the grounds of his advanced age.

"Just as there is an America which is generous and which we like, so there is an America which is frightening, and that is the America which has just revealed its face," French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand said.

The right-leaning US TV channel Fox News has speculated that Switzerland arrested Mr Polanski because it wants to curry favour with America in an unrelated dispute over bank secrecy and tax evasion.