this is artsy moscow with me kevin zero in this hour in our top stories for you egypt's ousted president hosni mubarak will spend the rest of his life in jail the reports that the eighty four year old suffered a heart attack when his way to prison he was found guilty of his part in killing hundreds of protesters last year. president putin calls for more time to that kofi demands peace plan take effect in syria resisting blaming one side of the conflict concerns over nato as missile shield and money matters also came into focus as russia's leader visited berlin in paris. and speaking of mind r.t. could cost you your job in latvia or a stone here several people and companies have landed on black lists after calling for equal rights for ethnic russians including r.t.

and four of minister sergei lavrov. just ahead spotlight hears from two russian by kids whose road trip led them unexpectedly to an iraqi prison why just ahead. was. the. last. hello again and welcome to the spotlight they entered into shall archly and calgary nod 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 the easier 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 travellers moxy mcknight's he and his uncle guinea 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 world latin america the united states mexico europe and china in the iraqi jail demand 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 valid iraqi visas most school did. everything it could to get the bikers back. 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 ties to realize that was a trip. how solid was your experience as advisors at the time did you just go to iraq and get into trouble right away being young and to train riders or had you

perform long distance trips before tristin them with us. or experienced strikers. alexander virginia for example 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 that is just tourism or is there more to them that for you it. is a hobby. and this is something we enjoy doing so that we have something to look back when we get older if you knew your while the people who planned the journey 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 but the guys were strongly discouraged from that by people who can do. them that it's definitely not a friendly place just 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 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 dozens 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 of 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 present 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 happen to be there at the time of the summit and security was taken to the extreme. and what we saw there could be assessed as a police state or a total supervision regime. there was a large number of military and police there while overall mining we didn't see any threats posed by gangs to the taliban and so on we were just waiting 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 get it we wanted to see 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. right. any better than 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. 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 even going there is almost like going to sot you for a vacation really become so we went to the stairwell agency and told them 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 too long a period but they would chap to make sure i do not seem kept in touch with them if you mean the agency yes the agency eventually they agreed to weaken the service and we discussed what documents were required from each us indiana on a pre-arranged we happily collected there recently that one of the of the that's all junior to you why didn't you go to the embassy directly we did but one of the guys yakov when thier 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 how long did it will take them ten or twelve days. those who wish to store. 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 used this agency before and the mound of money they got from the boys was significant i wouldn't think that it's not the agency's fault 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 that serious. this is not to mention general damages most if you're

a young person you're not married yet rights didn't do you really regard what happened to you as what i paid and suffering or wasn't brinkley more like an adventure for you. just but i can only say that during my stay there i've changed. and i've changed my outlook at life. but nothing 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 and they said so many times. but that was not because of visas right right and actually that was for. 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 was 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 sure quickly so you think you're mature now how old are you you know it's bad when twenty five twenty five right you get a 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 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. they 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. they're useless whatsoever. nobody in iraq hears about thesis and they just stamp your passport and say you're welcome 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 these until later they detained them for us and then they used visas as a pretext the right to say. even though i'd see if any of guinea of one of the spotlight would be back shortly after we take a break so stay with us we'll continue this until the woman turns.

on good things i'm open to what it is transmission center break from the beating heart of this internet one remaining open channel with information from trouble free from filters in bangor use the back to the ship didn't like speed to cyberspace where battle just melissa made the jump to hyperspace challenging the establishment grip on information and the now being pursued by its sinister agents to learn more of what's happening with the tin figures on offices ends of the spectrum with us we both come off us journalist and hand wiki leaks founder rebel publisher troops and. russia would be soon which brightened if you knew about songs from funniest impressions. whose friends don't talk t.v.

don't come. into. play. welcome back to spotlight on an album just a reminder that my guests on the show today are ignorant and. then yet. must seem tell us about your arrest and what exactly were you detained for was if any 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 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 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 don't have to the station as it was already eleven pm they brought us to a prison term or a real prison with bars and on every a prison for the lock 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 in she is going to see the matter 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 the 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 phoning and kept another three. after a series of bad downs and searches were left with a single one with that in the one that we were determined to keep this time i mean 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 probably figured out already 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 the next time we called the consul 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 with you with that why was your cell out of. average family at this that 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 oh so you texted him when he yes the guys actually kept their phone off most of the time to save the better reception he called the consul and their families in russia the families contacted the consul right away and he told them that he had already heard from the guys and that it would be all right but they kept in touch with him all the time and he said they need not bori will 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 consulate would meet up with them and come to pick up the guys at five pm was a bit our friends texted us 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 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 wound be coming for you to do all of 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 the cameras said lead firms like guns 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 and swiftly 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 unless it's going to have already been 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. but he told us there's this same meaningless question over and over again up sort of the flash absurd well that's what it looked like to us maybe they 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 the ticket is an insult and get physical later on they said they had merely grabbed him by the neck so 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're in jail and you might even face a death sentence. socialism 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 the other 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're told they were supposed to arrange the security escort in 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. you've been. screwed 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 he actually did and the biggest message was don't go biking in iraq with not in the next five years at least we're back with him in the specifically iraq they're stationed 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 isn't just vice oh and what about cars. and you see they have a complicated situation in iraq as far as foreigners are concerned christians particularly tough times. 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. kooker so what's your take if any. there are quite a few serious questions in the bottom line is that you guys are here in one piece which means the 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 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 it off was all it to cause twenty four hours and people in moscow 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 travellers that you feel you're in trouble if the media no. thank you thank you thank you for coming very much for being with us and just

a reminder that my guest on the show today where russian biker might seem a nazi of envy of guinea of out of then you know it's one of the dive that organized the russian biker trip to iraq and that's it but now for all of us here spotlight we'll be back with more until then stay on r.t. and take a. well

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