On January 10, 2015, in the club “Pirates” there was supposed to be a concert of several punk bands including italian “Kalashnikov”.
However, on information received from witnesses, this never happened. Approximately during the middle of the set of the first band, the club was surrounded by police cars and “branded” vans of Riot police without numbers. Front doors were locked, people were banned to leave the building. After that riot police in masks broke into the building. Without explanations they put everyone face to the walls with hands behind the head. This was followed by ID check and control of personal belongings. The whole procedure took around one hour and a half with constant video recording from police. Distro with anarchist and other political literature was of particular interest for them – they were searching for owners of items without any success. However they confiscated all the items from distro including political books, musical CDs and Vinyls. The whole raided as abruptly as it had begun: after checking everyone they left the place without any explanations.
3 detainees reported after this. The concert just ended before it could even begin. Apparently the preparation for the elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus has already begun.
Update on yesterday’s raid on the concert:
3 people were detained who were selling items at the distro table. Initially, all of them were charged with distribution of extremist materials, later one of the detainees was released, but on Monday there will be court on minor Hooliganism. The trial of two other detainees will also be held on Monday in Minsk. Pre-court will be held at 11:00. Till the trial 2 people will stay in jail.