14 DAY TRIAL // In an odd bit of news, the drummer from legendary rock band The Scorpions, James Kottak, has been taken into custody in Dubai after he started acting weird and violent at the airport. The local newspaper, The National, says that the rocker displayed an offensive behavior towards Muslims and was likely drunk.
According to the account, a drunk Kottak later told police that he took a wrong turn in the Dubai airport when he was trying to find his way to a flight that would lead him to Bahrain where he was supposed to give a performance.
Witnesses at the scene recounted that Kottak showed a violent behavior towards airport personnel as well as random people at the scene. One AA officer recounts that he heard the drummer saying “what is this disgusting smell” and immediately after uttered an insult against Islam.
The officer is quoted as saying that he “I didn’t see anything else but I heard him. I then informed my supervisor, who came and took the defendant away.” The accusations are also supported by another man at the scene, a 25-year-old Jordanian passenger services agent who claims that Kotak came over to her and insulted Muslims.
“He was shouting ‘non-educated Muslims’ then he went to the office of the head and flashed his middle finger at the passengers,” the woman says. Another witness adds that “When he saw the Pakistani and Afghan passengers, he covered his nose and said that there was no way he will travel with them.”
The newspaper adds that The Scorpions drummer also pulled down his pants and mooned people, all the while yelling negative comments about Muslims. That is why he has been sentenced to one month in jail in Dubai.
As for Kottak, he claims that he never flipped people the bird, nor did he take down his pants to moon people, let along shout negative things about Muslims. “I don’t remember saying these words and I did not flash my middle finger,” he told prosecutors. However, he did plead guilty to drinking without a permit “I confess to drinking alcohol but I refuse the other two charges, I did not do them.”
The fact that this news has only recently made public is very odd, especially since Kottak has been in prison since April 3. Kottak's lawyer maintained that his client was innocent and that the witnesses could have misunderstood. “Their testimonies are contradictory, your honour,” he concluded.