"James Kottak boarded a plane out of Dubai and arrived in the US last night. He will have to find the time to sort out his problems (...) At this point we want to hear personally from James what happened in Dubai... We let you know... Hopefully there will be better days..."

According to United Arab Emirates newspaper The National, the 51-year-old drummer had five glasses of wine on an April 3 flight from Moscow to Dubai while travelling to Bahrain to perform at the country's Formula One grand prix.

Somehow, James took a wrong turn at the airport and mistakenly ended up at the transit hall where he ran into trouble with customs and allegedly ranted about "non-educated Muslims". He also reportedly showed his middle finger to other passengers and pulled his pants down. See also this news item on Drummerszone.

James has admitted to drinking but denied the other charges, stating:

"There is no way that I would say such a phrase about Muslims, whether I was drunk or not. I confess to drinking alcohol but I refuse the other two charges, I did not do them."

In addition to spending one month in jail, James was fined 2,000 dirhams (approximately $540 USD) for drinking alcohol without a license.

Due to the incident, James was forced to miss the Scorpions' Bahrain gig on April 5 where he was replaced by Mark Cross. For Scorpions' recent concerts in Germany, Swedish drummer Johan Franzon filled in.