A Belarusian model, arrested in 2018 in Thailand for organising a sex seminar, will be deported to her home country on Thursday, Thai Immigration Police said on Wednesday.
“I just discussed the matter with the Russian ambassador to Thailand.
“It was decided that the group will be deported back to their home countries tomorrow,’’ Immigration Police Chief, Surachate Hakparn, said.
Anastasia Vashukevich was arrested alongside another Belarusian and several Russians in a hotel raid in February 2018 in Pattaya, a popular seaside town, 150 kilometres south-east of Bangkok, following a tip-off on illegal activities there.
Seminar participants told police that they paid $640 each for a sex course co-organised by Vashukevich and that they were promised certificates guaranteeing their sexual skills upon completion.
Also known as Nastya Rybka, Vashukevich later claimed to have evidence of Russia’s involvement in the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.
In an apparent attempt to evade imprisonment and deportation, Vashukevich claimed she had an affair with Russian oligarch Oleg Derispaska, a one-time associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign director, Paul Manafort.
Vashukevich said on Instagram that she had proof of Russian efforts to help Trump win the election.
However, the material never surfaced during the period she and her associates were detained in Thailand.
The decision to deport Vashukevich and her seven co-defendants back to Belarus and Russia came after the group on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges that included illegal solicitation.
The judge at Pattaya Provincial Court handed them each a suspended sentence of one year and six months.
