Human rights
Rock band Bi-2: All flown from Thailand to Israel
According to their own statements, the musicians from Bi-2 were arrested after a concert on the holiday island of Phuket. photo
© Pavel Golovkin/AP
The Russian band was held in Thailand and was initially expected to be deported. Now the musicians are apparently on their way to Tel Aviv.
The seven musicians from Bi-2, several of whom also have Israeli passports and two of whom are no longer Russian citizens, said they were arrested last week after a concert on the holiday island of Phuket and taken into immigration detention. The media initially reported that the musicians were to be deported to Russia.
On Tuesday evening, one of the band’s founders – Yegor “Ljowa” Bortnik – had already flown to Israel, as the band announced, while the rest of the group initially remained in a migration prison. Now the band announced that everyone was on their way to Israel. The band is accused of not having the valid documents to perform on Phuket. “The reason for the arrest was incorrectly formulated documents from the organizers,” Bi-2 said on several social networks. Human rights activists warned that the exiled group would face persecution if deported to Moscow because of their public criticism of the Russian government.