Larychau: They were so happy to catch ‘man who drew the Minister’!

Graffitist Aleh Larychau had expected to be jailed for 15 days for swearing in the street and did not come to court on June 6. However, he has been fined for 30 base amounts (630 roubles) instead:

"I decided not to go there to spend a few more days at large. Thy implied that I would be jailed – one of the policemen pointed at me and said that I would be their ‘passenger’.”

The hunt for the coordinator of the street art project Signal started after Minister of Internal Affairs Shunevich had been painted at a transformer vault in Minsk. According to Aleh Larychau, the riot policemen who detained him and his friend Hanna Novik on the night of June 4 said that he ‘had offended their Minister’.

"They kept watching me all the time since I left home," Aleh said. "They knew about everything we were doing on that evening and were deliberately following us. Now I understand why they detained me when I left a pizzeria earlier. They had been following me too. They were so happy when I was brought to Minsk Katsrychnitski District Department of the Interior! They said: “We have brought those who painted the Minister, Balaba and barbed wire on the graffiti Minsk-Moscow.” But they had no proof, They simply said: “Who else could do it? Mass media are saying that it is you.”

Aleh had a stencil and spray paint cans on him at the moment of he detention. He wanted to make a graffiti for the first time but did not manage to do it, he said. The young people were detained and Larychau’s friend was fined for 10 base amounts for using bad language.

Larychau is planning to create new murals. He may do it in other cities.