Police brutally arrest Nizkiz musicians, release forced confessions

January 6, Pozirk. Police have arrested three members of the Belarusian rock band Nizkiz, Belarus 4 Mogilev reported.

The state-run TV station did not say if any charges have been brought against singer Alaksandar Illin, bass guitarist Siarhiej Kulša and drummer Dźmitryj Chalaŭkin.

Lead guitar player Liavon Niesciaruk is reportedly staying abroad out of harm’s way.

Belarus 4 Mogilev claimed that the musicians left Belarus after 2020 and decided to come back. However, the Viasna Human Rights Center said that they actually lived in the country and frequently traveled abroad for gigs.

In an apparent effort to discredit the rockers, the TV station showed armed security officers rummaging through the musicians’ messy apartments and their forced confessions.

The TV station trumpeted the arrests as a big success for the government of Alaksandar Łukašenka.

Illin and Chaliaŭkin, who seemed to be doing little more than uttering lines from a script in front of the camera, said that they were manipulated by opposition into performing at anti-government rallies. Both expressed regret about it. Kulša just said a few phrases without confessing to anything or expressing regret.

The arrest comes as a big blow to opposition supporters, many of whom watched Nizkiz perform a few day ago at a New Year’s Day show broadcast by Belsat TV, a Belarusian television station labeled by Minsk an extremist group.

Opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja condemned the raids as an “attack on our culture” and “another shameful act of revenge by the regime.”

Founded in 2008 in Mahiloŭ in eastern Belarus, the band has five studio albums.