Tourists Arrested In Kazakhstan For Wearing 'Borat' Style Mankinis

Six Czech tourists were arrested Friday in Kazakhstan for wearing mankinis, similar to those worn by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2006 film “Borat,” Kazakhstan news website informburo.kz reported Monday.

The tourists were arrested while posing for a photo in the country’s capital, Astana, and wearing Baron Cohen’s signature outfit from the movie: a green Speedo stretched over shoulders and exposing the wearer’s buttocks. The men posed in front of an “I [heart] Astana” sign in 28-degree weather while being watched by police who arrested them.

The members of the group were charged with “minor hooliganism” and fined $67 each, according to the BBC. In Kazakhstan law, hooliganism is any act that is “a particularly audacious violation of public order,” including “committing indecent acts.” The maximum penalty for hooliganism is up to a year in prison or in a corrective labor camp, however, that is usually reserved for violent offenses.

“On Friday citizens of the Czech Republic were detained in a car park near an exhibition center while posing in an indecent manner," said Sofya Kilyshebkova, a press spokesperson for the Kazakhstani interior ministry. "They were charged with a public order offense."

In the movie “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” Baron Cohen’s character plays Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional journalist who travels to the United States to make a documentary. Baron Cohen also wrote and produced the comedy. Kazakhstan’s government originally banned the film and threatened Baron Cohen with a lawsuit. Government officials felt the movie negatively portrayed Kazakhstan as racist and sexist.

Parts of the movie, such as Borat explaining local wine is made from horse urine and saying gay men have to wear blue hats, were not received well. In 2012, however, Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov thanked Baron Cohen for boosting Kazakhstan’s tourism.