All members of the Bi-2 group, who were detained in Thailand and were in the Bangkok temporary detention center, were sent to Israel. About it reported in the team’s telegram channel.
“All the musicians of the Bi-2 group have safely left Thailand and are heading to Tel Aviv. Details tomorrow,” the group said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Ministry notedthat the detained Bi-2 members were released thanks to the work of the department and the country’s embassy in Thailand.
“I am glad that through smart and persistent diplomatic work we were able to release the Israeli citizens detained in Thailand along with their foreign counterparts. “They are all on their way to Israel and are doing well,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
The band’s lawyer, in a conversation with Mediazona*, confirmed that the musicians managed to fly out of the country after a meeting between the consuls of Israel and Australia with representatives of the Thai Foreign Ministry.
According to the lawyer, there was also supposed to be a meeting with the Russian consul, but “it’s unclear whether they met together or separately.” “More like separately. The meeting lasted several hours. Representatives of the group did not participate in it,” he explained.
After everything was resolved, the musicians were taken to the migration office at the airport, where they were “registered, given passports and put on board,” the lawyer said. He also added that El Al airline “helped a lot with the purchase of tickets.”
Detention of musicians
On January 24, police in the Thai resort of Patong detained members of Bi-2 immediately after a concert at the Illusion club in Phuket. At the Russian consulate notedthat the musicians were detained as part of a raid to check “the legality of the grounds for carrying out concert activities.”
Two days later, on January 26, the Phuket court sentenced each Bi-2 participant to a fine of 3 thousand baht ($95). After paying the fine, they were ordered to leave Thailand. Attache of the Russian Consulate General Nikita Kalinichenko reported RBC that representatives of the rock band did not contact the diplomatic department for help.
Telegram channel Mash wrote, that the initiator of the detention of the Bi-2 participants was allegedly the Russian Consulate General, which asked the local authorities to “carefully check” their documents. Source of the Brief telegram channel in the Russian Foreign Ministry named this information is fake.
On January 28, Bi-2 members got in touch for the first time and explained that the reason for the detention of the musicians was a mistake that local organizers made when preparing documents. At the same time, the concert, according to the artists, was officially held at the Illusion club.
Later, the musicians reported in their Telegram channel that on January 29, a decision was made to deport the group to Israel, but on January 30, “after a visit by high-ranking diplomats from the Russian consulate,” this decision was canceled. “Mediazona”*, citing a Bi-2 lawyer, wrote that Russia demands the extradition of three members of the group with Russian citizenship detained in Thailand.
In total, seven Bi-2 members were detained in Thailand, four of whom have Israeli citizenship. The co-founder of the group, Alexander “Shura” Uman, in addition to an Israeli passport, also has an Australian one, the publication specified.
What deputies and lawyers said about the consequences of the potential return of Bi-2 to Russia – in the RTVI material
On the same day, January 30, Bi-2 soloist Leva (Egor Bortnik*) was released to Israel.
- Egor Bortnik* in May 2023 criticized the military actions in Ukraine, and also wrote on social networks that he was “disgusted and disgusted” and had no plans to return to Russia.
- In the same month, the Ministry of Justice included Bortnik* in the register of foreign agents for the fact that he “opposed the military operation and spoke negatively towards Russia, its citizens and government bodies.”
* included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents