Greek heavy metal group detained at Tbilisi airport, ‘taken for satanists’

According to the band members of the Greek heavy-metal rock group ‘Rotting Christ’, they were detained at Tbilisi airport by police officers for twelve hours and ‘accused of being satanists and being involved in terrorism’.

The group says that they were detained because of the name of their band. The group’s label Season of Mist reported to this effect on their Facebook page. The band members say they were first detained at passport control, where border security staff took an interest in their documents.

“The police stopped my brother and myself and asked us to come in for questioning,” said the group’s frontman Sakis Tolis.

“They took our passports and cellphones, and we were put in a holding cell. When we asked for an explanation as to why we were being detained, we were told that this information was ‘confidential’. Later, our lawyers told us that we had been included on the Georgian security service’s list of ‘undesirable individuals’.

The Group members further said: “We were placed without any reason into a dirty, nasty cell, isolated from the outside world. We were released thanks to the efforts of our agent, Georgian lawyers, journalists and activists. We thank everybody who participated in this process. We were able to overcome these difficulties and had our show. We thank all our Georgian metal-brothers for their support.”

The Ministry of Internal Affairs denies that the incident took place and claims that a routine check was carried out on the group members. However, the ministry did not say how long this process took.

Rotting Christ is a Greek death metal group founded in 1987. The group is now on tour promoting its new album. The group was able to perform despite the difficulties.

Concertgoers say that the evening was ‘unforgettable’.

The group has left Georgia and is heading for Armenia.