08 July,2010 09:59 AM IST | | Agencies
Grammy award-winning Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev has been charged in Thailand with raping a 14-year-old boy, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail, police said.
Pletnev, artistic director of the acclaimed Russian National Orchestra, was released yesterday after he posted 300,000 baht (USD 9,300) bail following his arrest in the Thai resort of Pattaya. "He was initially charged with raping a boy under 15 which carries a jail term of four to 20 years," Lieutenant Colonel Omsin Sukkanka said.
He said police were also considering whether to file charges against Pletnev of illegal detention of a juvenile. The 53-year-old musician was granted permission on Wednesday to leave the country temporarily but is required to report back to the court every 12 days.
His next scheduled engagement is a performance with his orchestra in Ohrid, Macedonia, on July 12. The conductor was arrested after police began investigating allegations by the victim that he had been raped by a Thai man and procured on behalf of many foreigners, Omsin said.
The probe uncovered photos of Thai boys with foreigners, including Pletnev, he said. The Thai man has been charged with trafficking, procurement and rape of underage boys.
Pletnev first shot to fame as a virtuoso pianist, winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978 at the age of 21. In the early 1980s he started conducting and in recent years gave up piano concerts in favour of his increasingly in-demand conducting activities.
His recordings with the RNO of the Russian classics, notably symphonies by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, have been hailed by critics.
