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Coronavirus pandemic

Lawyer hopes for progress towards Yaroshenko’s release from US jail this week

Earlier, US Attorney General William Barr instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release convicts from penitentiaries and put them under house arrest in view of the COVID-19 risks

MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The defense of Russian air pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a prison term in Danbury, Connecticut, hopes that progress towards his client’s release will be achieved early this week.

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"The situation in the Danbury prison remains very serious," lawyer Artyom Tarasov said on Russia’s Rossiya-24 round-the-clock television news channel on Monday. "Many of the inmates and prison wardens have come down with the novel coronavirus infection. We hope that early this week we will see favorable developments in this direction [Yaroshenko’s release from prison — TASS]. Yaroshenko is certainly within the risk group," he said.

Earlier, US Attorney General William Barr instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release convicts from penitentiaries and put them under house arrest in view of the COVID-19 risks. According to some reports, this instruction in the first place applies to the prisons in Elkton, Ohio and Danbury, Connecticut, where the coronavirus situation is the most serious.

The first two coronavirus cases in Yaroshenko’s prison were reported on March 30. According to his wife, Yaroshenko himself has health problems. He coughs and is running a temperature. Prison doctors have diagnosed him with an acute respiratory infection. On Friday, Yaroshenko’s defense asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release Yaroshenko in the light of the coronavirus risks.

Yaroshenko was convicted in the US on September 7, 2011 and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. He pled not guilty and described his arrest as a provocation and all charges against him as a fake. Yaroshenko was brought to the United States from Liberia, where he had been arrested on May 28, 2010. In a sting operation agents of the US Drug Enforcement acting undercover ostensibly obtained evidence that Yaroshenko had criminal intent to transport a large batch of cocaine.

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