MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Russia is demanding that US authorities follow international law for fair treatment of jailed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko serving a 20-year prison term in an American jail, a Federation Council upper parliament house official said on Tuesday.
The demand follows Yaroshenko being given surgery on January 21 at a hospital in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, where his jail is located — treatment during which, says Andrey Klishas, chairman of the upper house constitutional legislation and state construction committee, "hospital workers violated a number of international laws".
"I hope that our US colleagues do not transpose current political relations between the two countries to an individual's life and health, since Americans consider rights and freedom above all," Klishas said.
Yaroshenko’s lawyer Alexey Tarasov earlier told TASS his client had undergone surgery without proper preparation. He was denied rehabilitation rights and medicines needed for pain leaving him unable to walk.
Pilot Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2011 after transfer from Liberia for cocaine trading and subsequent illegal delivery to the US. He was brought illegally to New York by US Drug Enforcement Administration officers without compliance with legal procedures set under international standards and Liberian legislation, and without obligatory notification to Russia’s diplomatic mission.
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