Playboy arrested over Dubai ‘Butt Squad’ photoshoot says ‘sorry’ from jail cell

The playboy in custody over the notorious Dubai balcony 'Butt Squad' photograph has apologised over the picture.

Vitaliy Grechin, 41, remains locked up in the UAE where he has tested positive for Covid-19.

The women in the now infamous photo – mainly Ukrainian – have all been released from a "jail hell" and deported with a five-year ban on returning.

In his first interview Grechin said "sorry" for the "mistake" but denied any intention to cause offence to the Muslim country where public nudity is strictly prohibited.

He revealed he has now faced bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds for securing the release of a dozen women held after the picture sparked outrage.

Asked if he apologised, he said: "Of course I do. And we all do.

"The girls have apologised in interviews (since their release). For me, it is also very unpleasant."

He told EAST2WEST: "When people make a mistake and apologise for it, it has to be taken as that.

"Clearly, there was no intent to offend anybody. Clearly, they were not climbing a mosque naked.”

It was "a spur of the moment decision" to take the picture against the background of Dubai’s skyscrapers, he said.

Grechin claimed: "It happened within a minute.

"One girl said: 'I'm going to take a picture,' and then it was 'me too,' 'me too,' 'me too.'"

"Everywhere else in the world it would be considered normal."

Grechin said he paid for around 20 women to travel to Dubai on an all-expenses paid trip to escape lockdown.

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Hitting back at rumours about the women on the trip, he insisted: "They are not models, escorts or anything else."

Grechin also denied ordering the naked balcony picture or choreographing it.

He said: "The girls went to the apartment and they went on to the balcony to take a photo with a view.

"The neighbour took a video of it and it went viral.

  • Nude Dubai balcony model 'ashamed' after being deported for 'Butt Squad' photo shoot

"There seems a deduction that the girls are models and prostitutes but they are none of these things. "

He says the women detained spent 10 days in jail, with no food or decent water, no hygiene supplies, no sheets and just a metal bunk to sleep on.

After realising the police were getting involved, the photographer and several women rushed to the airport and flew out to Russia.

  • Naked 'Butt Squad' models banned from Dubai for 5 years after 'offending public decency'

Those who remained were held on suspicion of involvement in prostitution and pornography, but these accusations have now been dropped against all of them.

Grechin had been told by the authorities to “accept my sin” over the balcony picture, but he had not done so.

He added: "Did I take the picture? No. Was I in the picture? No. Was I on the balcony? No. Did I make them go outside? No. Did I post the video? No."

  • Naked models deported from Dubai arrive home in Ukraine as one stays behind with Covid

The playboy had been moved from jail to a prison hospital for coronavirus sufferers but was now in custody in a coronavirus holding facility since he showed no symptoms.

He said: "I have a paper from the prosecutor saying we have no evidence that you did anything wrong.

"But I am still in custody and cannot leave the room I am in.”

Grechin hopes to leave as soon as he has a negative Covid test.

Among the group with him in Dubai was Vogue model Evgenia Taran, 21, who said: "I made a lot of conclusions, realised my mistakes, and to some extent (I am) grateful for what happened."

Another, trained lawyer Yana Graboshchuk, 27, complained they had been treated like "animals” in jail.

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