"He had a foreign passport and a bag with personal belongings. He was acting nervous." Border guards detained a GlobalLogic programmer for allegedly attempting to illegally cross the border. He says he was going to visit relatives. What did the court decide?

The incident occurred on December 22, 2025 in the Khotyn community of Chernivtsi region. The man was stopped by a border guard at a checkpoint in the direction of the settlements of Mamalyga and Korneshty. According to the border guards, he was heading towards the border outside the checkpoints, thus violating the requirements of the legislation on the state border.

The administrative offense report noted that the man was in a controlled border area, had a foreign passport and a bag with personal belongings, and during communication with the inspector, he allegedly behaved nervously and gave «vague answers» ​​about the purpose of the trip. These circumstances were the basis for drawing up the report.

In his written explanations, the programmer stated that he was heading to his wife’s parents in the village of Kelmentsi, had no intention of crossing the state border, and was waiting to receive the appropriate travel permit. He also asked the court to consider the case in his absence.

During the consideration of the case, the court drew attention to a number of significant violations in the actions of the border guard service. In particular, in the case materials: there was no evidence of an actual attempt to cross the border — no photos, no videos, no maps of the area; the exact location of the incident, coordinates, or distance to the state border line were not indicated; the protocol did not specify what actions the person took in order to illegally cross the border.

The court separately emphasized that the protocol itself, without confirmation by other evidence, cannot be considered sufficient to prove guilt.

Given the lack of objective evidence of the offense, the court closed the proceedings in the case due to the absence of elements of an administrative offense.

The resolution was adopted on January 30, 2026 and can be appealed to the Chernivtsi Court of Appeal within ten days.

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