KIEV, Dec. 13 – A prominent investigative journalist was detained by police without apparent cause late Monday in Ukraine, a country whose government has been repeatedly accused of attempting to restrict the freedom of speech.

Mustafa Nayem, who writes for Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper and hosts a political talk show on TVi, was told to get out of a car before he was detained and taken to local police office. His cell phone was confiscated.

Nayem was released later on Monday after several lawmakers, alerted by the news of his detention, had contacted senior Ukrainian police officials.

“I asked to explain why they had taken my phone, but [the police officer] said he was not going to explain anything to me,” Nayem said in comments released by Ukrayinska Pravda.

Police said Nayem was detained for allegedly refusing to present his ID and “as a person of Caucasian appearance,” a reference to his ethnicity.

Nayem, who is of Afghan descent, said he had clearly showed his ID.

Oleksiy Krykun, the chief of Kiev police, later called Nayem to apologize for the detention.

Nayem has a history of uneasy relations with Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine.

The latest incident comes seven months after the Yanukovych administration has been allegedly secretly examining a personal dossier on Nayem.

The file, labeled as “confidential” and containing personal information on the journalist, has been sitting on the desk of Serhiy Liovochkin, Yanukovych’s chief of staff, TeleKrytyka, an independent news agency, reported in May, citing a source at the administration.

This was confirmed by at least another source from the administration, according to Nayem.

Liovochkin has later denied “decisively and categorically” that such file exists.