Brest customs officers detain two Belarusian Wikipedia authors over suspicious books

Brest customs officers detained today two men, Ulad Hurynovich and Ruslan Yasayeu, who were returned from the meeting of the “Day of the Belarusian Wikipedia in Warsaw”, which was held yesterday at the University Collegium Civitas in the Palace of Culture and Science, Nasha Niva reports.

Ulad Hurynovich, student of the European Humanities University, and Ruslan Yasaeu, student of the Belarusian State Economic University, were detained after the customs officials found the books, which were presented at the meeting – “Belarus in Focus: Through the Eyes of International Journalists”. The book consists of articles by journalists who write about Belarus for international audience.

One of the detainees wrote to his friend in the “VKontakte” social network: “We were detained without explanation, they took the books and the passports. They let me go, and then they noticed a book in Ulad’s bag. They saw that we had the same bags and ran to catch me.”

When asked why they were detained the customs officers answered as follows: “Your books could criticize the current government.”

The guys were forced to provide written explanations, but have not been released yet.