Independent journalist detained on border with Ukraine

Belarusian border guards detained Kanstantsin Zhukouski and his friends for two hours for no reasons at Novaya Huta checkpoint as they were returning from Ukrainian Chernihiv on the evening of May 28. The border guards took their passports for a check. According to the activist, the border guards later said that they were detained and ordered to switch off their mobile phones, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Zhukouski spent more than three hours on the border. He and his car were searched. The border guards said they were looking for “anti-constitutional literature and data storage devices”.

Zhukouski has met problems on the border for the third time in the past two months.

Kanstantsin Zhukouski was tried several times for working as a journalist without accreditation and for struggling against illegal actions by real estate developers. The activist went on dry hunger strike during his 10-day term in custody for “swearing” in February 2015.

On August 25, 2014, the riot police detained the activist in the yard of his house. Zhukouski called the police because trucks from a nearby construction site blocked him access to the yard and didn't agree to give him way. Zhukouski was tried for disobeying orders of police officers and sentenced to 5 days in custody.