Krisiun Arrested in Bangladesh Airport Under “Blasphemy Law”

Brazilian metal bands Krisiun and NervoChaos were scheduled to perform in Bangladesh tonight, May 9th, as part of their ongoing tour together. Unfortunately the show had to be canceled, as both bands were detained upon arriving in the country and held for several hours, forcing them to miss the gig. Subsequent shows in Mongolia, China, Vietnam and Malaysia have also been scrapped as a result of today’s events, although the members of both bands have now been released.

Musica.uol.com.br broke the story, sent in by MetalSucks reader Seth A. The below translation comes via a Reddit user, with some of his commentary about the timing of events added in bold:

The brazilian bands Krisiun and NervoChaos were arrested in the early morning of this Tuesday (0th) at Hazrat Shahjala International Airport in Daca, Bangladesh. According to a statement released by Krisiun, they were approached by police at the moment they were collecting their luggage. The passports were detained and both bands stayed in the local for over 8 hours.

The bands are in an international tour together, and before going to Bangladesh, they had performed in Hammersonic Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. The bands were released in time for the concerts, which had their tickets sold out. The concert, however, was canceled by local authorities. [Not true, they held them for much more than ‘over 8 hours’, they would miss the concert anyway, the journalist are misinformed because he didn’t contact the band, they only saw a post talking about 8h, some few hours ago the brazilian producers were asking people for help in case they knew anybody in the country, because they didn’t return their passport even with the embassy helping, but the ambassador himself didn’t do anything so far, also the brazilian government didn’t contact the Bangladesh ambassador in the country to discuss the issue]

The bands were released after contacting the Brazilian embassy in Bangladesh, which helped to solve the situation. According to the press agency, both bands are in a hotel in Bangladesh, but no authorization to leave the country. On this Tuesday afternoon, they’ll have another meeting with the Brazilian embassy.

In Facebook, Lauro Bonometti, from NervoChaos, explained the situation: “Today, we from NervoChaos along Krisiun, are still detained in Bangladesh airport, which resulted in the cancellation of our concerts for being called as SATANIC bands, where the local religion is extremely radical. Our passports are detained by federal police, which forbid us to take any action to be released. We’re at the airport for over 8 hours and without knowing the possible outcome of this pathetic episode, and we’ll contact the brazilian embassy soon to help us in this case”.

Both bands are planning to attend to their concerts of Asiatic Tour, which is going to Japan, China, South Korea and Mongolia.

Krisiun offered the following statement via Facebook:

We are hereby to manifest our big appreciation and respect for the Metalheads in Bangladesh, We know it’s not their fault the show got cancelled here today.
We are not against any religion, political view, or have any prejudice against anyone, it’s not the matter here.

We don’t want to see our big metal family worldwide fighting against each other, The world suffer with so much problems nowadays and Metal set us free and make us strong!

We came to Bangladesh to make a concert and unfortunately the authorities decided to cancel, it’s not the promoter’s fault, it’s nobody’s fault, it’s local authorities decision to shut the show, the Metalheads are great here in Bangladesh the concert was sold out, We deeply thank all you guys here for the enormous support, We will be back one day! Respect, together we are strong, Metal never dies!

Krisiun!

NervoChaos posted on Facebook about the incident as well:

Bangladesh, 09th of May 2017

To whom It May Concern,

We would like to thank the consul and his entire staff immensely, at the Brazilian consulate in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

We had a very unpleasant experience, where we were victims of a great misunderstanding and experienced more than 10 hours of pure prejudice and misinformation.

As soon as we landed at Hazrat Shahjala International Airport in Dhaka at dawn on the 9th, we were approached by security officers while we searched for our luggage. We had our passports withheld, without any explanation, in an extremely conservative country. The event was canceled and the visas we obtained at the embassy of Bangladesh in Brazil, totally disregarded.

Thanks to the great effort and enormous help of the Brazilian consul and his team at the Brazilian consulate (in Dhaka, Bangladesh), of the ambassador of Brazil, Maximiliano Arienzo; and from our travel agent Carla, we were cleared. We will continue the tour, playing in Japan and South Korea.

Unfortunately due to mentioned events, the shows in Mongolia, China, Vietnam and Malaysia are canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and hope to return in the near future.

Thank you.

Meanwhile, the band’s Bangladeshi fans put together a touching video expressing apologies on behalf of their country’s authorities: