Sacha Baron Cohen offers to pay fines for Czech tourists arrested for wearing Borat mankinis

The British comedian reached out to the tourists on Facebook 
Helping out: Sacha Baron Cohen is helping out tourists fined for wearing mankinis
Jennifer Ruby21 November 2017
The Weekender

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Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has offered to pay fines for six Czech tourists who were arrested for wearing Borat-inspired mankinis in Kazakhstan.

According to local media, the group of tourists were fined 22,500 Tenge (£51) each when authorities stopped them last week because of their ‘indecent’ appearance.

The British star caught wind of the incident and has now offered to pay the fine if those in question reach out to him and identify themselves.

“To my Czech mates who were arrested. Send me your details and proof that it was you, and I'll pay your fine,” he wrote on Facebook.

He then created a special email account, arrestedforwearingyourmankini@gmail.com, for the tourists to get in contact.

The green mankini was made famous by Baron Cohen’s much-loved comedy creation in the 2006 big-screen comedy.

Baron Cohen had been set to star as Freddie Mercury in the forthcoming biopic of the Queen star’s life, but fell out with Brian May during the pre-production process.

Speaking on the Howard Stern Show he said May wanted to “protect their legacy as a band” and was “not a great movie producer”, while Cohen wanted a more “warts’n’ all” approach.

May later refuted these claims, telling the Mail on Sunday: “Sacha became an a***. We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas but he went off and told untruths about what happened.

"Why would he go away and say that we didn't want to make a gritty film? Are we the kind of people who have ever ducked from the truth? I don't think so."

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