Jazzman Arakelyan: “In prisons, everything is done so that as many prisoners as possible are released with coronavirus.”
By: Voices Belarus
Tags: Belarus, Prayforbelarus, Police, Music, Protest

After a 15-day arrest, musician Pavel Arakelyan was released from the Mogilev prison. He held the record for the number of street concerts performed. Pavel shared his opinion of being under arrest with “Nasha Niva”.

“I was detained on November 7 after a concert in the Malinovkaneighborhood. Riot policemen appeared at the crossroads near me when the driver was taking me home.

We were dragged out of the car that was still moving. I was brought into a van, they pulled my hood up and made me face the seat.

At first, they were dealing with the driver a little bit, but then they took it upon me. The driver was released since he had nothing to do with all of this. The car did not have time to stop when they pulled us so it hit the car in front of us. Therefore, the driver was left to deal with the traffic police.

“Either 8, or 10 riot policemen were sent after me, they said that about a dozen were waiting nearby. Of course, they used force, but this is nothing compared to what’s happening with others. They said I was lucky because they knew me. I said, “Well, thanks.”

They said they have been hunting me.

They said they were tired of me because I ran away from them many times.

“Where was it?” I asked.

“In Molodechno city.”

“I have not been to this city for over a year.”

I heard a lot of nonsense from them, like what do I you need, how much I’m getting paid, and why I don’t take money. “If you don’t take the money you’re a fool because others do. Europe will take over and everyone will be in trouble, demographics will fall.”. If I asked them a question they didn’t know the answer to they would say “If not Lukashenka, then who?” and “They won’t give Belarus away”. All this continued until we arrived at the police department. They were intimidating me “Be careful, we will meet again, we know you, you are a good man but just chosen the wrong path.”

10 years ago I used to train myself at 3214, but we were a group of civilians. If I knew someone, I would not have remembered them, I have a bad face memory.

They brought me to the Moskovsky district department of internal affairs. I hear them saying “Oh, they brought the musician in!” There were journalists from “March” Katerina Karpitskaya, and also a journalist from the “Russian MBH” Roman. I was brought in in the evening, the police were sitting talking to the girls, they dealt with me quick, maybe within half an hour.

Roman and I ended up in a four-bed cell. It was funny when people detained during Sunday protests were pushed to random cells. Prison employees asked during their morning and evening walks “How many people are in the cell? — “Twenty” — they shout back at him. The next one is seventeen. And there were only two of us in our cell. “You have a luxury suite!” people were making jokes.

We were together until the court. Four more guys were brought in to our cell, but literally for just one night because I was transferred to Zhodino prison.

The court is just a joke. My goal was to delay the trial as long as possible.

If you delay as long as possible, then, perhaps, someone’s detention period will expire and they will be released. I listened to this nonsense for an hour.

The police witnesses said they did not hear me shouting slogans, neither did I have any protest gear. That was a standard court process in Belarus. The judge was tired.

In general, the detention is full-fledged torture. 15 days without food, water, toilet paper, hygiene, human relations. You can interview basketball player Levchenko and agree with everything she said.

The only thing I want to emphasize is that during a terrible global pandemic, in prisons they do everything to ensure detainees get out sick. There was a moment when they asked if anyone had any health complaints. The guy raised his hand “I do not, but I was in contact with the person who had coronavirus.” “Haha, so you won’t communicate with others.”

They know what they are doing. You all drink from the same mug, there is no hot water. Everything is being done so that as many people as possible come out of there with a Covid.

I have a cough myself, but I always cough during this season. When I was released yesterday, I was the healthiest person there, although I have problems with the nasopharynx.

In Mogilev prison, the officers try to follow the protocol 100%. They keep everything on time, officially, they adhere to a soldier’s daily routine.

I am happy that I went to prison. I would have never established so many wonderful contacts as in these 2 weeks. There were real shining stars: the world-famous urologist Alexander Minich, a unique teacher from BSU Alexander Soroka, an ambulance doctor, leading specialists of the IT companies, businessmen, historians, teachers, a miner, a worker from Maz, a former military man, they all were there with me. The whole slice of society was there. Of course, they all were “drug addicts and alcoholics” as our president calls us. I have not seen real drug addicts and alcoholics at all.

I was warned that they would detain me. I was ready from the moment I went out to do what I can — it was August 13 or 14. I met around 25 people in prison and everyone who was there said that while we were there, we were taking someone’s place, perhaps a person who could not sit. None of them whined.

I was glad that that Saturday when I was detained was the last day of my planned concerts. I completely executed the plan I outlined. The last week I was performing was tough. I even thought of finishing early, but they started to detain musicians, so I didn’t want to demoralize anyone.

Now I want to do another large-scale project of solidarity, but I need to restore my health first. I want to record “Kupalinka” in the studio. I have a video from almost every neighborhood where I played.

I can’t even say how many concerts I played, after 43 or 44 I lost count. Maybe 60, maybe 80. It doesn’t matter who is the record holder. Andrey Takindang and Pete Pavlov also worked on a tight schedule. I think we all played the same number of concerts.

I didn’t even know that Takindang and Pavlenko were detained on the same day.

I went out more cheerful than when I was brought in. I saw the mood of the people who are in captivity there. They discuss what to do next, how to reform health care, police, the education sector. These are all real proposals and reforms within two to three years with a complete change of the system. For everything, some ready-made models need to be adapted to our realities.

There were lectures and classes in each cell. There were songs too. But in Zhodino prison the girls sang so beautifully that we didn’t want to interfere.”