16-year-old Katyaryna Skurat questioned by KGB officer

A friend of arrested photographer Anton Surapin, who is reported to have been the first person to take a photo of Swedish teddy bears, is not in jail.

It became known from unofficial sources that Katyaryna Skurat, 16, who photographed the toys dropped from the plane over Ivyanets, has not been taken into custody. KGB officers questioned the girls in the presence of her parents. She cried as she was giving answers to questions of KGB officers. The security service officers then talked to her parents, Narodnaya Volya newspaper reports.

Katyaryna Skurat's account on VKontakte social networking site, where she posted photos of Swedish teddy bears, has been removed.

As charter97.org reported earlier, information appeared on Facebook that the girl is suspected of taking a photo of the Swedsih teddy bear “bombing” and sending the snaps to Anton Surapin, who published them on his website bnp.by.

We remind Swedish PR agency Studio Total reported  on July 4 via its website that a performance to support democracy in Belarus was held. Swedish citizens overflew the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, reached Minsk and returned. The Swedish pilots released 876 teddy bears with free speech leaflets over the town of Ivyanets (the Valozhyn district of the Minsk region) and the outskirts of Minsk.

On July 13, photographer Anton Surapin, 20, was detained in connection with this case. He was suspected of aiding in illegal crossing the border and publishing photos of the teddy bears. Estate agent Syarhei Basharymau, was also detained. He was going to rent an apartments to the Swedes, but they cancelled reservation via SMS. Basharymau's girlfriend Iryna Lahoika was thrown into KGB jail for one day.

Both young men may face up to 7 years in prison.