In an interview with Sputnik Naceri spoke about those who initiated the fight at a Moscow karaoke bar. He challenged the evidence given by the bar’s owner as well as reports about the serious cranio-cerebral injury that he allegedly suffered during the scuffle.
The bar’s owner earlier said that the actor and his companions wanted to sing more and when the party was over and they went out into the street they initiated a fight with several individuals that were unknown to her.
According to Naceri, however, a large group of Russian-speaking men “with a lot of booze on their table” paid the bar’s managers to jump the line.
“I’m aware of the Russian karaoke culture and I know the rules. I’ve been to 20 bars during the year I’ve spent in Russia and I have never been told to pay for singing a song. It looks like they paid something and though they had more rights than others,” Naceri told Sputnik.
He added that even after those people had sung 20 songs, his and his friends’ turn to sing never came.
The actor also disagreed with the bar owner’s words about his company being drunk.
“I don’t drink alcohol because I take medicines,” he noted.
“Those guys knew the bar’s administration well. At some point I said: ‘Stop, we are leaving.’ I went out and waited for my brother to come out. When we went down one of those guys pulled my arm apparently wanting to have a word with me. I told him we were leaving. They followed us and one of them attacked my brother and we started fighting,” Naceri said, adding that although the bar’s security guards had come out they didn’t intervene.
Later, as Samy and his friends were on their way home, one of the men walked up to him and hit him hard in the face.
“We called the ambulance because my face was covered in blood… before that we had been trying to break up the fight so that nobody got hurt,” Samy explained.
READ MORE: Police Hunt for Bar Fight Shooters in St. Petersburg
After police arrived and detained the man who had hit the actor, Samy and his brother went to the police station where his brother wrote about what had happened.
“I will give a written explanation too. The man who hit me was drunk, and the police confirmed that,” Samy said.
He added that he had gone to a hospital to make sure he was all right after being hit in the face. He still had a black eye but said that he was “fine.”
Samy Naceri later wrote on Instagram that “I’m feeling fine,” and denied media reports about the head injury he allegedly suffered during the row.