DANBURY (Connecticut), August 24. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, was very heartened by the first meeting with his family in seven years, Vice-Consul of the Russian General Consulate in New York Evgeny Uspensky told a group of journalists, among them a TASS correspondent, on Friday. Uspensky was present at the beginning of the family visit.
"The last time Konstantin saw his family was in 2011, when he received his sentence," the diplomat noted. He stated that since then "they have only talked via phone." "Right now, their first meeting is underway, which is very emotional, very moving for the whole family," Uspensky noted.
"We managed to see Konstantin before the meeting, and I have to say, we have never seen him as excited before, of course," the diplomat added. According to him, Yaroshenko was "heartened" by the visit. "I am sure that this meeting will be good for him," Uspensky said.
Speaking about the meeting, the diplomat informed: "They managed to hug, when he came to them, and the wife and the daughter ran to him, it was very emotional." As expected, the meeting will last for several hours. Uspensky said that they are meeting in a general area; there is no special room for the visit.
The vice-consul stated that Yaroshenko "has complaints, including some over his medical condition," and that the consulate "will demand that all his requests be taken into account."
Viktoria Yaroshenko came to meet with her husband together with her daughter Yekaterina, who last saw her father in 2011. The Russian pilot’s wife and daughter arrived at the prison in a car provided by the Russian Consulate General in New York.
On Monday, Viktoria Yaroshenko told TASS after arriving in New York that her length of stay in the US could be enough for 12 meetings with her husband. According to Alexei Topolsky, Vice-Consul of the Russian Consulate General in New York, a request for 12 meetings between the jailed Russian pilot, his wife and daughter has been sent to the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Yaroshenko case
Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in May 2010, and was later clandestinely transferred to the United States. In September 2011, he was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle a major cocaine shipment into the US, and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. However, Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty, saying that his arrest was a setup and the case was fabricated.
Until recently, Yaroshenko had been serving out his sentence at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution, but in mid-June, he was first transferred to a transit prison in Brooklyn, New York, and then to the current Danbury prison, which holds more than 1,400 inmates.
Russian officials and the pilot’s family have repeatedly requested that Washington extradite him to Russia.