Kreikkalainen black metal -legenda Rotting Christ pidätetty Georgian rajalla – epäillään terrorismista

Black metal on jälleen vaarallista. Kreikkalaisen black metal -bändi Rotting Christin nokkamies Sakis Tolis ja hänen veljensä Themis Tolis on nimittäin pidätetty Georgian rajalla. Pidätyksen syynä on mitä ilmeisimmin epäily terrorismista, joka taas puolestaan johtuu bändin nimestä ja viittauksista satanismiin. Bändin nokkamies Sakis Tolis kertoi asiasta näin:

”We arrived in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi very early in the morning of Thursday, 12th of April. After the regular document check at the border, my brother and I were stopped by the police on our way out from the airport. After some minutes, we were ordered to follow police to another area of the airport under the pretence of further questioning before entering the country. Instead, we had our passports and mobile phones taken away and were lead into a prison cell. When we were demanding to be told the reason for this arrest, we were simply told this information would be ’confidential’. Our lawyers informed us later that we are on a list of unwanted persons of national security that branded us as Satanists and therefore suspects of terrorism.

Without previous warning and no official reason, we found ourselves in jail, locked into a small and rather dirty cell and without being permitted any contact to the outside world or legal representation or our embassy for 12 hours. Conditions were bad and no further information provided during this time.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeenMainos päättyy

Luckily, only the names ’Tolis’ were on the list and the other two band members started to work with the local promoter to extract us from prison and commence legal procedures. It took strong efforts and a complicated procedure to find a solution. Due to the hard work of the local promoter, who involved legal experts, journalists, and activists in Georgia, we were finally released. We are extremely grateful to everybody involved in this process. In the end, we were even able to perform our show and it turned out to be a fantastic night. We would also like to thank all our Georgian metal brothers for their overwhelming support!”

Hetken sellissä istuttuaan bändi pääsi kuitenkin jatkamaan Euroopan kiertuettaan ja lähtemään kohti Armeniaa.