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Wife of jailed Russian pilot Yaroshenko says he has been operated in US prison

The operation was conducted in a hospital outside the prison

ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 3. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year prison term in the United States, has been operated by US medics. This time, the surgery was successful, unlike the one he had in the spring of 2016, Yaroshenko’s wife, Viktoria, told TASS on Sunday.

"He was operated in the second half of the day on November 30. He is all right, unlike the first operation in the spring of 2016. Konstantin is fine. He said he liked the doctor who was very respectful, unlike the one back in 2016 when he was expelled from hospital immediately after the anesthetized surgery. This time, the doctor did not let take him from the hospital until he recovered from anesthesia," she said.

The operation was conducted in a hospital outside the prison. According to Viktoria, after the first surgery in 2016, Yaroshenko was taken back to prison when he was still under anesthesia. "The operation back then was very difficult. He couldn’t walk. They dropped him at the prison gate and he had to walk all the way down to his room. He had high temperature for five days, he could neither lie nor sit. His roommates carried him to the prison hospital using linen as stretchers. The doctors was giving him only pain-killers, saying she could do nothing more," Viktoria recalled.

"Now, the attitude was absolutely different. He was driven to the building. He says he was afraid the situation would be like in 2016 but now it was world apart," she added.

Konstantin Yaroshenko was convicted in the United States on September 7, 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He pled innocence and described his arrest as a provocation. All charges against him were trumped up, he stated.

The pilot had been brought to the United States from Liberia, where he was arrested on May 28, 2010. Agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration operating under cover allegedly exposed Yaroshenko’s criminal intention to transport a large batch of cocaine.

He is serving the prison term at the Fort Dix federal prison, New Jersey.

Russia has repeatedly requested the United States to release Yaroshenko.

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