Kyiv police tried to detain head of the World Association of News and News Publishers Christoph Riess and Jan Wagner of the INMA organization.
"Riess and Wagner along with their guide and interpreter were touring the Park of Glory and were heading towards the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, when they were approached by two police officers for documents check. The guide and interpreter showed their passports, Riess and Wagner their ID cards. Police said that was not enough and told them they would have to be taken to a local police station for identification," General Director of the Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine Oksana Brovko told the Telekritika edition.
They were questioned for about 20 minutes before the policemen agreed to let the foreign guests go and not take them to the police station.
One of the officers introduced himself as Pechersk District Police Sergeant Oleh Kyrek, the second one did not name himself, Brovko said.
The Ukrainian policemen were not so qualified as to be able "to understand what ID cards were," she said.
Riess arrived in Kyiv at the invitation of the Ukrainian president and attended a Ukrainian newspapers congress. On Oct. 29 he met Viktor Yanukovych to discuss the possibility of holding the 2012 World Newspaper Congress in Kyiv.
"The police officers who acted in accordance with Ukrainian law have indeed stopped the foreign citizens for identification," the Ukrainian Interior Ministry told Interfax on Sunday.
"However, these people were not detained after they were identified during their conversation with the police officers, and continued their movement around the city," the ministry said.
An internal inquiry has been launched over the incident.
