15 May 2014
John Scraggs, mayor of
Chippenham, was collared by Russian authorities
He was taking pictures
of trams and trolley buses in the city of Samara
But agents suspected he
was a terrorist looking for targets
The 69-year-old was
interrogated for five hours before he was released
An elderly mayor from a
quiet market town in Wiltshire was arrested on a trip to Russia because they
suspected he was a terrorist - after he took pictures of trams and trolley
buses.
John Scraggs, the
69-year-old first citizen of Chippenham, was led to the cells and interrogated
after they found photos of him standing next to the vehicles.
Despite his protests,
Mr Scraggs and another man from a 20-strong party of tourists were held for
five hours and faced tough questioning from interrogators.
The white-faced pair
feared they’d be deported from Russia or even worse, sent to do hard labour in
Siberia.
But the authorities
finally accepted they were innocent trippers on an organised visit to Samara in
south-east Russia and let them go.
The public transport
enthusiast couldn’t wait to make the trip to Russia with fellow enthusiasts to
see the buses and trains.
'They couldn’t work out
why all our photos were of trams and trolley buses rather than the usual
cathedrals,' said the mayor today.
'They must have thought
we were terrorists and we’d taken photos of each other standing next to likely
targets like the transport system.
'I feared we were going
to get thrown out of Russia, or worse.
Sam Webb
