Minsk Police Detained Street Musicians And Seized Their Instruments

The musicians are students of the Minsk college.

In the evening of June 15, the company of young musicians gathered at Minsk Niamiha. They were playing under the bridge until the police showed up. "Six men came up, - Mikalai Salko recalls. - They said that we had no right to play there, that we had no permission from the authorities, although musicians always play there. We said: no problem, we are ready to leave. But they told us to stay where we were, they would detain us for violation of public order. Two cars arrived a couple of minutes later, and we were taken with our instruments to the police station," tut.by reports.

According to Mikalai, the company of five stayed for several hours in the police department of Tsentralny district of Minsk.

- The protocol was rewritten twice, - the guy says. - We did not see any articles about violation of the law. We just wrote down that we had played, that we repented and promised not to violate the law anymore. Copies of the protocols were not given to us, although we asked for them. The most important thing is that our instruments were seized.

The guys are students of music college, now they have a session. Instruments are needed to prepare for exams, but the musicians don't know when they can be returned (and whether they are returned at all).

- They confiscated the accordion, two guitars, a kahon (a percussion instrument), two combo amplifiers, the microphone stand and the microphone itself, - Mikalai says. - We only managed to "win back" the violin because the girl had an exam near at hand and they took pity on her. When we asked why the instruments were being confiscated, they said that when a crime is committed, weapons are also being confiscated. But we were just playing under the bridge! We had no foul songs, no political slogans, either.