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Mankini-wearing 'Borat' tourists arrested in Kazakhstan

Paul Harrison
BBC UGC and Social News
informburo.kz Czech men in Borat mankinis in Kazakhstaninformburo.kz
The Czech men were detained on Friday for 'minor hooliganism'

Six Czech tourists who dressed up as Borat have been arrested in Kazakhstan for wearing nothing but mankinis.

The group posed for photos dressed in the revealing swimsuits in the capital city of Astana last week.

Local media reported on Tuesday the tourists were arrested and fined 22,500 Tenge ($67; £51) each for their "indecent" appearances.

The costume was made notorious by Borat, a fictional Kazakh TV presenter played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

PA Sacha Baron Cohen/Borat poses for photographersPA
Sacha Baron Cohen and Borat made the mankini famous in 2006

The news sparked a lively debate among Kazakh social media users.

Journalist Assem Mirjekeeva asked on Facebook: "I wonder how would the Czech authorities react if our citizens did the same in their country?"

"I think they would have not reacted. It is because our police are so sensitive," replied Facebook user Vitaliy Shuptar.

"This is teasing, they should have been jailed," @_solar__eclipse_ commented on Instagram.

"They should have had a criminal charge for insulting the honour of the nation," another poster said.

Borat remains a controversial figure in the Central Asian state.

In 2006, Baron Cohen wrote and produced the comedy film Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which follows the character of Borat Sagdiyev as he travels to the US to make a documentary.

Getty Images Actor Sacha Baron Cohen appears in character as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev at a press conferenceGetty Images
Sacha Baron Cohen's character is well-known for his mock-documentary feature film

Kazakhstan banned the film and sales of the DVD. The government also threatened to sue Baron Cohen.

Although the sections of the film set in Kazakhstan were mainly filmed in Romania, Kazakh officials felt the movie portrayed the country as a racist, sexist and primitive.

However, in 2012, the Kazakh foreign minister publicly thanked Baron Cohen for boosting tourism in the central Asian state.

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Reuters A no photography signReuters

However, taking distasteful photos or wearing inappropriate fancy dress in many different nations may land you in hot water.

A pair of tourists, one British and one French, were questioned by police in Peru last year after posing naked at the Machu Picchu ruins. In 2015, a British visitor was arrested for posing naked on top of a mountain in Malaysia.

And seventeen British men were arrested in 2005 for wearing nuns' habits in the Greek island of Crete.

Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring