throughout the afternoon here in moscow a very good afternoon for me kevin oh and this is our t.v. these are all top stories egypt's deposed president hosni mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison and was found guilty by a cairo court of complicity in the killing of hundreds of protesters by security forces during last year's revolution there scuffles with inside and outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced the eighty four year olds the first former needed to be tried in person by his own people after the arab spring problems. in paris president putin's urged the international community to stick to kofi annan as peace plan for syria to prevent full scale civil war meanwhile the independent panel's been asked by the united nations to investigate the houla

massacre in which one hundred people many of them children the school. found facing the sag for speaking out a professor says he said to lose his job now as oppression of ethnic russians continues in the baltics the latvian naval academic has to be shown the door after appearing on r.t. voicing concern over discrimination. puts the spotlight on the russians by kids who recently detained and then freed from an iraqi jail it's just. was. that the. last. hello again and welcome to spotlight the intern the show on archie and calgary nava

and today my guests on the show are a group of russian bikers who got into big trouble because. the group recently became famous after being jailed in iraq detained on a visa for three charges based spent a week in prison where they were allegedly beaten and threatened with death bed but when the russian foreign ministry intervened they easy riders were released and flown back so how could this happen did they really enter iraq with fake visas or was it all fixed cost one of the travelers moxy mcknight's he and his uncle you get me put helped organize the trip oh. my cheering crowd welcomed full russian bikers on monday when they returned home from iraq they were detained in new baghdad on the twenty eighth of may in charged with espionage

and these a forgery the men are actually very experienced mood of bike tourists who previously traveled from the whole of latin america the united states mexico europe and china in the iraqi jailed a man would beaten and even threatened with the death penalty found guilty the whole situation caused a diplomatic row now the russian korean ministry spokesman admitted at the bike isn't a direct from turkey without valid iraqi visas most school did. everything it could to get the bikers back while they were still in jail hundreds of russian bikers how they really outside iraq's embassy protest in their arrest they deliver their petition to we were ox and boy in russia asking for the man's release on their return to moscow the bikers blamed the media for not reflecting the real situation in iraq which they found was far more dangerous than they expected.

as. any welcome to our program well first of all with regard to this entire thriller that was a trip. how solid was your experience as bikers at the time did you just go to iraq and get into trouble right away being young and costly train riders or had you perform long distance trips before but tryst in the with us in. our experience striker's. alexander virginia for example i have traveled all around the world including many countries in asia and south america not to mention europe in russia. south america remote and challenging region as well indeed. lots of places wherever we went we never had any problems at the cheese dip is it just tourism or is there more to them that for you it is a hobby and

a lifestyle and this is something we enjoy doing so that we have something to look back when we get older you get to your while the people who planned the journey i did you choose iraq of all places is by far not a popular tourist destination these days. no not at all the guys had wanted this trip for a long time they had contemplated it for eighteen months the plan originally included of ghana stand to but the guys were strongly discouraged from that by people who can do. them that it's definitely not a friendly place because for iraq it was different we looked up the government websites and kept up with news so we were aware that country has a difficult period but then again if you judge to russia by t.v. news you'd never want to go there either we have terrorism too so we thought it would be really interesting to go there and see the country each after all. have a second chance to visit miss about tommy and go iraq with iran our generation might never have such an opportunity well judging by news reports you can travel

anywhere today even canada comes across as the world's most dangerous country with arsons and police detaining people by the dozen smart that's true and you've mentioned a couple of who traveled with you once you're back in moscow he claimed that hugh had been misled by russian media which it gainey has effectively confirmed leg arise that from watching news in russia you hadn't realized there was a real war on iraq does he mean any particular news sources or would you say that russia's broadcast media generally presenting iraq as a place that's hardly more dangerous than russia. when we were preparing for the trip his various news sources including t.v. radio and internet there was little reliable information on the state of affairs in iraq. i cannot speak going to have a leg as this was his personal opinion. but i agree that what we actually saw in

iraq was different from the media perspective. so you agree that by and large the media failed to provide reliable coverage that's right. all right. as someone who has just returned from this country how would you assess the situation in iraq and how is it really different from what the media tell us. but almost it's hard to say as we do understand that we happened to be there at the time of the summit and security was taken to the extreme. and what we saw there can be assessed as a police state or a total supervision regime. there was a large number of military and police there. overall didn't see any threats posed by gangs to the taliban and so on we were just reading our bikes.

passing by checkpoints where they inspected our documents. so you didn't see any actual war there no we didn't see a war there although you practically across the whole country from north to south some of them didn't make it to the hardest areas in the south did you actually want to go there. no we didn't really if we wanted to baghdad in baby and you guinea as i understand the guys were detained for having forged visas could you tell us how this happened because as someone who organized distribution be responsible for this . we had spent quite some time looking for a travel agency to get the resists down eventually we came across a company that facilitated the irina had already put through several groups of bikers to around the deliver. so you weren't even the first group to go there that's right russian bikers up walking to iran because iran is actually irregular

destination nowadays iran and going there is almost like going to sot you for a vacation really become so we went to the struggle agency and told him we want to go to iran and then we asked them if they can do your records well and they said yes we have recently opened up around you guys wanted to be says for a two month period but the agency said they might not be able to do that that's too long a period but they would charge to make sure seem kept in touch with them you mean the agency yes the agency eventually they agreed to we the service we discussed what documents were required from each of us in ghana on a pre-arranged we happily collected their resources that one of the of the that's all jr which is why didn't you go to the embassy directly we did that one of the guys yakov went there and they told him no problem but it takes two months and you have to provide a whole bunch of papers faster to go through a travel agency yes you want how long did it will take them ten or twelve days.

those who watched the storm of russia use media reports suggest that your visas were issued by a consulate officer who as it turned out later had quit his job at the consulate a year ago just issue do it i choose to in other words it was clearly a swindle but by whom by the consulate or by the travel agency there's any. well we don't blame anybody. for the study but who's fault is it who do you blame how i mean it was people of course we blame the agency and we're going to sue them but go on the other hand. any other bikers who use this agency before and the mount of money they got from the boys was significant i would even think that it's not the agency's fault to actually get some middleman between the agency and the consulate. the amount was insignificant but the mess they got the boys into was significant first they ran

into serious problems second they pay for the return tickets now they'll have to pay to bring their bikes back but it's a lot of money. this is not to mention general damages most if you're a young person you're not married yet rights do we do you really regard what happened to you as my pain and suffering or was it brinkley more like an adventure for you. just but i can only say that during my stay there i've changed things and i've changed my outlook at life. but nationally i was like what could be when you're in prison and you don't know what's going to happen to you and you're told you're going to be executed. did they really mean that dark. counter-intelligence officers who talked to us said so literally i don't know if they really meant it we have to ask them they said so many times. but that was not

because of visas right right and that that was for espionage reasons they said they'd lock us up for ten years and that's it for visas yes we're going to give up on it because people should know that we should know what kind of laws iraq has if i go there for example and something's wrong with my visa and it's not my fault i may get ten years. to do it. well you have to realize that those were security officers talking to us it's not in their goal to intimidate us but i don't know whether what they said was true or not i mean it in any case it sounded very real and horrifying when you're in such a situation and your life is in danger you miss your quickly. so you think you're mature now how old are you you know it's bad when twenty five twenty five. you helped organize this trip but does this strike us strange that there are border controls when you go abroad either a russian border guards iraqi border guards or it is their responsibility to make

sure that your visits are valid but. this is something we're learning only now. when you guys went to court they thought they did not need a visa tall. just stamp your passport that's all. i think it is all because of that summit because three other guys went earlier this same way and they had no problem with. they're useless whatsoever they did. nobody in iraq hears about jesus and they just stamp your passport and say you're welcome but i think this issue of faeces came up only three days later. when they needed to find something faulty with the boys so that they didn't see anything about visas until later though if they didn't know they detained them for us and then they used visas as a pretext the right. say. even though i'd see if any of guinea of one of daniel and so the spotlight would be back shortly after we take

a break so stay with us we'll continue this interview live in terms. of good things and welcome to what makes twenty missions since the break from the beginning hans of this incident one remaining open channel with him from machines in trouble free from filters and back to back to the ship didn't like speak to cyberspace where battle journalists have made the jump to hyperspace challenging the establishment's grip on information and are now being pursued by sinister agents to more of what's happening in the opposite ends of the spectrum the. journalist at hand we keep expound on that will publish a. child

missing. police in effect. lost. every single meter of the forest lawn chairs found the girl. it was too late. oh a score of lives saved money is voluntary scouting force is the best memory of the one life most. welcome back to spotlight on an album just a reminder that my guests on the show today are ignorant you and. then yet.

must seem tell us about your arrest and what exactly were you detained for guinea has just told us the invalid visas caught their attention when you had already been in custody for two days but if you did so what was the initial purpose of your arrest did you break traffic rules or misbehave otherwise. you were writing a busy route. approaching baghdad right exactly we were getting stopped in checked twenty to thirty times a day checkpoints every time they would look at our passports and then call their superiors and then every time they decided we could move on then we reached a checkpoint some hundred twenty kilometers outside of baghdad and once again they stopped us for an eighty check you know when this time dragged on for two or three hours was it apparent from the start that they would lock you up or a dude looked like just another chance when he was absolutely routine business phone calls. then they decided to wait for their superiors to arrive to

meijer showed up and they decided they could not let us into baghdad with our bags and that it would be inappropriate. you know this that for our own safety they would load our bikes in a truck and take us to a hotel in baghdad. what language did he speak when talking to you english. no one speaks english there he was erratic in body language but we got his message when you. do any of you speak farsi and we don't we spoke to him up to a point in then we called the russian consul to figure out what was going on. oh yes so you managed to lead the consul no means yes and then we put him through and the consequence faded for us and he explicitly to. the police were not questioning your papers so it was fine. ok and when they brought you to baghdad did they take you straight to jail. and taking us from one precinct to another if

you don't have to the station it was already eleven pm they brought us to a prison term or a real prison with bars and every a prison for you they look you up together or in separate cells were placed in a single cell. did they give you any explanations they had initially told you it was for your own convenience but what did they see once they locked you up and she is going to cd. we spoke to the head warden and he told us guys this is for your own safety and i stopped sorry for the tight security sorry for the handcuffs and the head bags. you had that i did yes and we walk around the courtyard single file so it's all for your own safety and you only have to spend a few days with us we were given no option for no thanks. were you allowed to keep your mobile phones in the meantime. and we usually carry several cell phones each

so when they asked us to him they mean that we saw in it one phone each and kept another three. after a series of bad downs and searches were left with a single one with that in a phone that we were determined to keep this time so that's across all of the. evil is a paper so you made one more call to the consulate to tell them something was going wrong which you've probably figured out already and they didn't let us do that in fact when the head warden found out we already had contacted the consul he was evidently upset or clinics and we called the consulate was in may twenty third. twenty third when he would attain on the evening of me twenty so you spent three days with no communication why was your cell out of. bridge you see making phone calls in a place like that is a risky business that we send text messages instead. of the other people called the

consulate force our friend yvonne from st petersburg did a list with us also you texted him when he yes the guys actually kept their phone off most of the time to save the better reception at least he called the consulate and their families in russia and the families contacted the consul right away and he told them that he had already heard from the guys and that it would be alright they kept in touch with him all the time and he said they need not bori he'll take care of it they do this all took a few days and finally on may twenty third we got word from iran t.v. news crew who had contacted the consul and they told us the consul would meet up with them and come to pick up the guys at five pm wasn't it our friends that exodus to say the same thought we were happy then we called the consulate five pm and he told us we mean warry and we shouldn't call him it would be ok nobody doubted that he stopped taking our calls and we were confused and we had been told we should keep quiet because if we make a fuss it might make things worse so we decided we would take no action until ten

am on may twenty fourth at three pm we got a message from the guy saying things were getting worse right then the head warden invited them over. who doesn't want to tell them they are in trouble with the new to tell them they were about to walk they were waiting for the consul to arrive at the consul cold on the phone and spoke to the head of warden who passed over the phone to a leg and the consul told him i won't be coming for you to do it all that is when things got tough as far as i understand that is when they started late night it turned geishas in a rigorous search and took the phones away yes and they thoroughly searched the bikes which they didn't do before the bus was just parked inside and arrived in the courtyard and then they started going through all the luggage and that's why. and they give the boys a thorough search so is this right they started interrogating us and they send we found loads of stuff on our bikes that was illegal in iraq just phones cameras said led firms like comes in t.v.'s are banned in iraq. that media spies.

ok so you're saying the warden got upset when he found out you'd already spoken to the consul. are you suggesting that the iraqis had intended to snatch you quietly in the jail you or execute you or something because otherwise if you did that why would he be upset. and i have no idea what their intentions had been but when he learned were in touch with the consular families his disappointment was all but apparent on the streets of government provided while in jail where you literally exposed to physical violence the only time was that late night interrogation. was it exactly did the beach you or a tie you down one of the guys get beaten up. for or was it meant to make you more cooperative. the iraqi police peculiar method for interrogating

people looks more like i don't know. he told us there's this seem meaningless question over and over again up sort of the flash absurd well that's what it looked like to us maybe you were giving it something i don't know finally they told him we have punishment for spying in our country now admit you're a spy hewett out a nervous laugh and said you see it's ridiculous it's that left they didn't like they took it is an insult and get physical later on they said they had merely grabbed him by the neck then you should give them you want to say it was so they were trying to get you to confess to being spies after all security how soon was it that you actually realised this was not a misunderstanding or an accident that you're in serious trouble. you were in jail and you might even face a death sentence. so so as long as you have said it didn't seem all that serious at first. i would say so. and then the going got tough then.

i would say it was after our last call with the consul the security people got em into the excited and took to interrogating us brother. does this suggest that talking to the consul was actually bad for you know i wouldn't say that together must. we can only speculate maybe they thought the council was supposed to get these guys out but. it was showed up maybe that should tell us something but you know maybe they wanted to earn a promotion we can only guess. so why didn't the consul come to pick them up we were told they were supposed to arrange the security ask courtin an armored vehicle for him in advance but the herder why they feel to do it in three days is anyone's guess we have actually seen russian embassy staff leave their compound and indeed there is it a security procedure you do have to arrange of equanimity and i don't know why they failed to do it for us as i maybe was exactly because of the senate maybe they were

other reasons. but. scoring after it was all over and you are safe did the embassy people or anyone else give you any helpful advice for your future travels at that because i do hope that this was not your last towards the actually did and their biggest message was don't go biking in iraq with you not in the next five years at least bet but in the specifically iraq about their station in iraq so that's the place they know firsthand and they strongly discouraged anyone from writing to iraq. would that be your advice for everyone else is it just vice or and what about cars. do you see they have a complicated situation in iraq as far as foreigners are concerned christians particularly of them so. there are plenty of extremists in their country willing to take lives we arrived at a time when they had taken security there i'm not sure whether our wrist actually saved our lives or if it was just

a bad trip. what's your assessment of the way the russian diplomats deformed in this situation because in fact the russian foreign ministry is rather often criticized for being less than efficient in assisting our citizens abroad or do you believe they did everything they could for you. guys and myself we only saw the situation from behind bars we had no idea what was going on here in russia. i for one have not figured out yet has for the efforts contributed on the ground for our release. three of our cookers ok what's your take if any and there are quite a few serious questions in the bottom line is that you guys are here in one piece which means to foreign ministry has done his job but you miss the specifics of how it was done leave a few questions such as why did they fail to get through to us the first three days

when the media splashed you cough on the morning of may twenty fourth and just one day later the guys who were set free you can call for all it to cause twenty four hours and people in moscow be getting the iraqi embassy in the media making a big fuss about it anymore with. it enormously so keeping it quiet was an ill advised after all you know absolutely ever and what's your advice to all the travelers don't you feel you're in trouble if the media know you're deaf the receivers thank you thank you thank you for coming very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guests on the show today where russian biker might see midnight if any of guinea about of then you know it's one of the guys the organized the russian biker trip to iraq and that's it for now for all of us here spotlight will be back with more until then stay on r.t. and take a.