New “blacklist” on border

Anatol Lyabedzka and head of the UCP executive committee Aksana Kryshchanovich were detained and searched on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.

“We were detained for more than two hours. No one was able to explain to us what was happening during the first 40 minutes. As it turned out later, they were waiting for instructions from Minsk. They received instructions to search us. They conducted a thorough search of our belongings and car. They then took us to a search room for bodily search in the presence of witnesses. As they wrote in my search report, they 'examined clothing seams'. A new form of customs personal search was introduced. If earlier the report has one page, now it takes four pages,” Aksana Kryshchanovich told  the website ucpb.org.

The member of the UCP executive committee is confident it was the echo of the election campaign. “Of course, they didn't find anything illegal. But we were allowed to cross the border only after 3 a.m. I do not rule out the election campaign resulted in a new blacklist and opposition members will now face a special border crossing procedure,” she said.