All news

US-jailed Russian pilot keeps close eye on developments in Russia, hopes for Moscow’s help

He says that he hopes justice will finally be served in his case and relies on Moscow’s support
Konstantin Yaroshenko Valery Matytsin/TASS
Konstantin Yaroshenko
© Valery Matytsin/TASS

NEW YORK, September 11. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year prison term in the US jail, told TASS over the phone on Monday he is keeping a close eye on the developments in his home country, hopes justice will finally be served in his case and relies on Moscow’s support.

He said he was really happy to see his wife Viktoria and daughter Yekaterina who visited him in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, in late August, for the first time in the seven years he had been kept in the US jail. "Naturally, I was and am very nervous. I haven’t seen my family for more than seven years. It was very emotional," he said.

"I hate to think that we will have our last meeting on Monday and they will fly back [to Russia]. Of course, it will be very hard for me. But, nevertheless, I have somewhat cheered up. I saw them and it is good," he said. "They are struggling for me to be release, trying to break this wall."

He noted with regret that the possibility of another visit of his family is up in the air. "They had to wait for about six months to be granted US visas. But the visas were issued for a single entry," he lamented. "And the financial aspect also matters."

He also said that even in the US prison he tries to be in the know of what is happening in Russia. "My wife and daughter always tell me about all political nuances in Russia and elsewhere," Yaroshenko said, adding that he reads Russian newspapers the Russian embassy subscribes for him, although he receives them with a two-month delay.

He said he can watch US television channels but he doesn’t like them as local television, in his words, is nothing but a "propaganda machine." "I cannot find any good words for these channels," he noted.

According to Yaroshenko, his relations with other inmates can be described as generally normal, although a gap in mentality is rather wide. "It is very difficult for me, a Russian national, to be among Americans who have a different mentality, culture and the like. I am the only one Russian here."

Many of his fellow inmates, in his words, "were brought up on different ideals, mostly on money-oriented ones." "I was brought up on other ideals: on the heroism of the Russian people, my two grandfathers who were killed during World War II - one was killed in Stalingrad, the other - near Donetsk," Yaroshenko said, adding that he is "a patriot of his motherland" and sometimes it causes misunderstanding with other inmates.

Nevertheless, he stressed he never loses the hope that the Russian authorities would be able to help him return home before his term expires. "I believe in that," he stressed.

He thanked Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova for her efforts. "She is really fighting for me," he said.

The Russian pilot said he is convinced that sooner or later justice will be served in his case. "They, the Americans, have violated a lot of laws, both international and domestic. My case is built entirely on lies. Everything has been brewed on lies, in breach of law," he emphasized.

He said he hopes his case will be tackled by United Nations special rapporteurs. A request to this effect has been lodged by Yaroshenko’s attorneys.

"Of course, I would like to believe that the United Nations will be able to do something," he said. "I would like the United Nations or some European human rights organizations to conduct an independent investigation, absolutely independent."

Yaroshenko spoke with indignations about television broadcasts where the US criticized the human rights situation in other countries. The human rights situation in US prisons, in his words, is far from being perfect. "A hundred inmates being kept in small premises in unsanitary conditions. What kind of human rights are they talking about?," he stressed.

In his words, he cannot say anything definite about conditions in the Danbury prison where he was transferred to in June. "So far, I’d refrain from saying much about this prison as I have spent little time here," he noted, adding that he had to suffer from "utter discrimination" in his previous jail, Fort Dix in New Jersey.

"I was placed in a disciplinary cell at Fort Dix… What for? Spent there about a month," he recalled.

"I am still demanding medical care and are still given none. They knocked out my teeth when torturing me and I have been living without teeth since then," Yaroshenko said, adding that Russian diplomats keep on demanding the prison authorities medical care be offered to me but these requests are ignored.

Konstantin Yaroshenko was convicted in the United States in September 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The pilot clandestinely transferred to the United States from Liberia, where he had been arrested in May 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 pleaded innocent, described his arrest as a set-up and said all charges against him were 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.

Russia has repeatedly requested the United States to extradite Yaroshenko.