Belarusian border guards denied entry to four scandinavian writers, who wanted to meet in Minsk with their colleagues from Belarusian PEN club, journalists and publishers.
The delegation of Norwegian and Danish PEN club authors flew into Minsk at 1 am on Sunday. The border guards collected their passports and 360 euro visa fee from each. After a while, William Nygaard Trygve Alund, Carl Morten Iversen, Niels-Ivar Larsen were returned their passports with no visas. Border guards informed that they were denied entry and will be put on a next flight home. The visa fees were not returned.
Carl Morten Iversen suspects that the entry denial was a result of his previous visit, after which he spoke publicly in a very critical manner about the situation Belarus.
The writers had to sleep on the floor. The decision of the Belarusian authorities was criticized by a Belarusian dissident and a poet Uladzimir Niaklajev.
Belsat
