#FREEIRDORATH

The Belarusian Council for Culture has started the campaign in support of the musicians from the Irdorath fantasy-folk band and their friends detained on August 2 at a summer house near Minsk. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against seven people (five of them were recognized as political prisoners). According to human rights activists, the band members and their friend-bagpiper are charged under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (organization of actions that grossly violate public order). They face up to 4 years in prison. After all, they played in the streets a year ago, during the peaceful protests in Minsk in August 2020.
Unfortunately, today in Belarus everyone who plays music, performs on the stage in the theater, writes poems or draws pictures, can be imprisoned. The arrest of the philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich, the liquidation of the Belarusian PEN Center, the case of the Irdorath band are just the latest examples of repressions against people of culture in the country. Only during recent weeks, all non-profit organizations in Belarus have been destroyed, artists, writers, musicians are being arrested each day, and many of them are leaving the country. The regime is systematically working to destroy Belarusian culture and, together with it, the nation.

Our solidarity can help survive these dark times. Only together, expressing our common support, wecan confront the powerful regime machine .

Musicians from the Irdorath band and their friends supported the protesters during peaceful marchesin August 2020. It was the activity that they, like terrorists, were detained for, brutally, even with the use of weapons. At the same time, the public knows that both the accusations and the criminal cases are fabricated.
Why is it important?
Screenshot from police video
We are sure that all the detained artists, without exception, will soon be free and delight us with their music, poems and songs, and the funds raised will help them and their families to get back to life, free of the burden of at least financial issues.

The Belarusian Council for Culture has started collecting donations for the Irdorath band and their friends. You can make a contribution here.
All funds raised will be donated to support and rehabilitate imprisoned musicians from the Irdorath band and their friends detained on August 2.

We also ask you to share publications on social networks under the hashtag #freeIrdorath to tell not only Belarusians, but also the whole world about the injustices that are happening on Belarusian soil today. Only together will we become stronger and win.
What are we doing?
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