Scot who caused uproar in Kyrgyzstan after comparing national dish to horse penis returns home

Michael McFeat was employed as a welder at the Kumtor gold mine, the country’s biggest, when he posted a message on social media comparing “chuchuk” – a horsemeat sausage – to an animal’s penis.

His colleagues called for his arrest and and prosecution for race hate crimes and organised a short strike. He could have faced up to five years in prison if charges had been pursued.

Now back in his native Perthshire, Mr McFeat said: “The police told me my act could send Kyrgyzstan to war with the UK.”

Many Kyrgyz media outlets referred to the incident as the “delicatessen question”.

Speaking to the Sunday Post, Mr McFeat, 39, said he had to be smuggled out of the mine in an ambulance after his co-workers found out what he had said. A car then took him to Bishkek, the capital.

However, en route to Bishkek, he was ambushed by locals he believed were carrying weapons.

The car was run off the road.

He said: “They were ramming us, trying to kill us. We stopped and five came out with something in their hands.

“I wasn’t sure if they were guns or knives or clubs, so I hid in the boot. The driver put the Jeep into reverse and fled. They ended up chasing us all around the town.”

After evading the angry mob he had to wait 45 minutes for more security to pick him up.

At Bishkek airport he was arrested by police and taken to the city of Karakol, where he was forced to apologise.

In a vide uploaded to YouTube he is interviewed by authorities and is seen to apologise and say: “If I had known it had been offensive in any way, I would certainly never had put it on Facebook and would have never had said it.”

In court the next day, he said: “That’s when I really began to panic because I’d been told I could go to jail for five years.

“I was in a foreign country with no idea how the legal system worked. It was a nightmare because my translator had very poor English. The only words I understood were ‘Facebook’ and ‘Scotlandia’.”

Mr McFeat was subsequently deported over having the wrong documentation.

But the mine worker said this was a cover story: “I was told there was a 17-page petition demanding I be jailed and the mine went on strike after I left, so they were making an example of me.

“I can’t fault the police and I think the authorities did what they had to do. Everyone seemed to have my best interests at heart once I explained it was a misunderstanding.”

Mr McFeat maintains he did not intended to offend the country and genuinely believed the dish to be a horse’s penis.

He said: “All the ex-pats believed it and probably still do.”