Authorities in Kazakhstan have dropped drug smuggling charges against popular Russian hip-hop artist Navai and deported him from the country, local police said Tuesday.
Navai Bakirov was arrested last Tuesday while entering Kazakhstan from neighboring Kyrgyzstan after border guards found 2.5 grams of marijuana in his vehicle. A court placed him in pre-trial detention for two months.
Bakirov reportedly admitted during interrogation to purchasing the cannabis in Bishkek prior to crossing the border, triggering an internal investigation in Kyrgyzstan.
“The criminal case against the Russian rap artist was terminated on non-rehabilitating grounds,” Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl regional police department told the Tengrinews outlet.
Kazakh authorities took into account Bakirov’s “active repentance” and the fact that it was his first offense.
“The foreign citizen has been deported,” the police department said in comments quoted by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
Bakirov’s defense team said earlier it was seeking to secure his release on bail.
The arrest forced the cancellation of Bakirov’s concert in Astana scheduled for last Wednesday, while organizers postponed his remaining tour dates.
Bakirov, a native of southern Russia’s Samara region, rose to prominence across the post-Soviet space as part of the hit-making duo HammAli & Navai before launching a solo career.
His legal trouble in Central Asia came nearly one month after he resolved a separate civil dispute in Moscow by compensating the city for damages caused when he crashed his Ferrari in the center of the Russian capital in May.
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