Belarusian activists detained on Ukrainian border

• 1.10.2012, 14:21

Customs officers searched a car of the family of activists Syarhei Semyanyuk and Iryna Smyayan Semyanyuk at Novaya Huta checkpoint on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border on September 30.

The family was returning from their relatives in Ukraine.

Iryna says customs officers at first detained them for 30 minutes, because they apparently didn’t know what they should do. Later, customs officer Pyotr Khamutovich said, “We don’t know where you travel” and ordered to search the car, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Customs officers searched the vehicle and personal belongings of Iryna and Syarhei and made search reports. Nothing illegal was found.

“They perhaps liked the T-shirts of the campaign against death penalty in Belarus that we carried in the car. They even unpack one of them and examined it with curiosity,” Syarhei Semyanyuk said. “They checked our bags and car – the glovebox, hood and so on. They were obviously looking for money.”