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A citizen of Belarus was sent to the Office of Public Prosecutor in Azerbaijan; he had tried to enter into the Baku Metro through the ventilation system in order to paint the walls in graffiti style, Sputnik Azerbaijan agency reports.
The agency was told at the Police department of Baku’s Nasimi rayon that if Sergey Ilyevski, the Belarus citizen detained on March 25, had not been in Armenia two days before arriving in Baku, he could have been released limiting with penalties.

According to the report, picklocks for door locks, gloves, a lantern, two ropes of different length, ten balloons with paint, twenty sprayers for painting, a Nikon camera, a Sony video camera, a mobile phone, and money were seized from the detainee. During Ilyevski’s inspection, photos taken in metro stations and depots of Tbilisi, Yerevan, and Baku were also discovered. 

Ilyevski confessed that he wanted to enter into the tunnel of the Baku Metro by cutting the iron lattices in the pipe of the ventilation system and to paint the walls in graffiti style. On March 18, 2016, Ilyevski went to Belarus from Georgia; in two days, he went to Armenia from Georgia, and on March 23, he returned to Georgia, and went to Azerbaijan from there.

Dmitri Gorbachev, an adviser of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Baku, told Sputnik Azerbaijan that the embassy is currently closely contacting with Azerbaijan’s law enforcement agencies in regard to Sergey Ilyevski’s detention. He said that the detainee is really a graffiti painter, who had chosen “the most unsuccessful way for self-expression.”

According to the information, metros of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia were the first foreign destinations Ilyevski chose for graffiti. The Police also noted that the painter had not managed to enter into the territory of Yerevan metro and paint the walls; instead, he painted the walls of the railway station of the Armenian capital.

Azerbaijani authorities bar the entry of foreign journalists and other celebrities to the country due to visits to Armenia or the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Back in 2013, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan published a list of people who had become persona non grata in Azerbaijan for visiting the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and thus are barred from entry to the country. According to media reports, the number of the names included in the list is above 500, which, however, does not stop the world celebrities.