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Russia will request jailed pilot Yaroshenko’s extradition from US next year

So far, there is no mechanism or roadmap that could resolve this issue, according to Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova

Konstantin Yaroshenko Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

Konstantin Yaroshenko

© Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

KAZAN, May 16. /TASS/. Russia will be able to request jailed pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko’s extradition from the US to Russia next year, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told reporters on Thursday.

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"So far, we have no mechanism or roadmap that could resolve this issue. We maintain contact with his [Yaroshenko’s] wife. I will contact the US officials and request to transfer him here after the legal period allowing him to be extradited passes, which will take place next year," she said.

Last week, Moskalkova stated that she is planning to address the US officials with the request to extradite Yaroshenko to Russia due to his declining health condition. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov notified Yaroshenko via letter that the US Department of Justice is considering Russia’s request for his extradition in accordance with the 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

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.

The Russian was first sent to the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution, but in mid-June, 2018, he was first transferred to a transit prison in Brooklyn, New York, and then to the Danbury prison, which holds more than 1,400 inmates.

Yaroshenko’s wife Viktoria said earlier that doctors at the Danbury prison had removed benign tumors from his stomach.

Russian officials and the pilot’s family have on numerous occasions requested that Washington extradite him to Russia.

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