Human rights activist searched on border for more than 5 hours

Human rights activist Dzmitry Salauyou was returning from Poland through Pyashchatka checkpoint.

The activist entered the territory of Belarus at about midnight. Customs officers, border guards and two men in plain clothes began to search his car and bags thoroughly, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Salauyou says his car was put into a special parking facility for search. They searched everything, even the hood and the bottom.  Customs officers paid a special interest to a poster depicting Ales Byalyatski, CDs relating to the death penalty theme and a guidebook for election observers. “They let me go only at 4 a.m. All people standing in the queue after me were searched cursory and quickly. They didn’t make a search and seizure report, but didn’t explain why it took such a long time. They gave back all personal belongings,” the human rights activist said.

It should be reminded that activists Syarhei Semyanyuk and Iryna Semyanyuk-Smyayan were thoroughly searched by customs officers on the Belarusian-Ukraine border yesterday.