An Ukrainian novelist Serhiy Zhadan was seized by law enforcement agents during his visit to the capital of Belarus, BBC reports. According to the report, the author was ordered to leave Belarus due to “shared black lists” with Russia, where the Ukrainian novelist was banned.

According to Serhiy Zhadan, Belarus police confronted him in his hotel room in Minsk at 2 am.

“I had to spend the night in a cell,” he wrote.

The police stamped Zhadan’s passport thus banning him from entering Belarus in the future, he said. He author asked Ukraine officials to respond to the incident.