Journalist searched and questioned for six hours on the border

Pavel Mitskevich and Kastus Zhukouski, driver, resident of the Homel region, were detained on March 3 on the border point Novyja Yurkavichy between Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The journalist was preparing an article about life in neighboring villages situated in different states. Both the journalist and the driver had all necessary documents.

The border guards held the Belarusian citizens for six hours; the detainees were fined 100 Russian rubles for violating the rules of staying in the near-border territories.

Several groups of border guards questioned the detainees in details about their aims, family relations, and about the assignment. The guards copied all the photos and stories from dictaphones, and even contacts from their cell phones. Later a plain-clothed man came, who did not introduce, and asked what the villagers had told about the current situation and what the journalist’s attitude was to the situation. The journalist underlined that they had no problems in leaving Belarus for Ukraine, and crossing Ukrainian-Russian border – the incident occurred when they were returning to Belarus.