To return to my story, when the policemen heard my name they announced that it was indeed me that they wanted. This might seem completely unreasonable but in fact was not so, because someone had pointed me out to them and told them to arrest me. From that point of view they had made no mistake. Actually there were two men who had instructed the police to pick me up, and they had been sitting in the same row as me on the aeroplane. Hearing their private conversation I had realized that they came from the same town as me, and I felt as though I had suddenly arrived back at my far-distant home. Having noticed their familiar accents I started chatting to them. I had no idea that this short conversation would bring disaster down upon me, would bring these two policemen into my life, and would see me being arrested like a criminal.

The police were part of the airport security team and I actually have no idea whether or not they did have the right to arrest me. At the time the issue of jurisdiction did not seem all that important; what was much more crucial was how I was going to get out of this! The policemen took my boss and me into their office. This consisted of an inner and an outer room. The outer office wasn’t very big and when the four of us entered, it seemed even smaller. Once we had all sat down the policemen started questioning me: name, work unit, family, political persuasion, social position, and so on and so forth, as if all of a sudden I had become a suspect. Fortunately my boss was present and he kept reiterating that I was not some kind of criminal but a perfectly respectable Party cadre. As a result the interrogation really wasn’t too bad.