ROSTOV ON DON, June 17. /TASS/. Attorneys of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, serving a 20-year jail sentence in the United States, will request his transfer to the Allenwood prison in Pennsylvania instead of the Loretto penitentiary facility in the same state, his lawyer has told TASS by phone.
"Konstantin himself spoke in favor of another correctional institution, which is also in Pennsylvania. On his request, we are preparing a petition to the Federal Bureau of Prisons regarding his transfer to the jail where he would like to serve his sentence - the Allenwood prison in Pennsylvania. I used to visit this facility several times. As far as I know, prison conditions are relatively good there," Alexei Tarasov said.
He said that Yaroshenko is currently held in a prison in New York.
"This is a place where people, who have just been detained and are awaiting trial, are being held. We have no idea of when he will be transferred to his new prison and what kind of prison it would be," the lawyer added.
"As far as his extradition [to Russia] is concerned, this question has been raised <...>, and it may solve all problems in Konstantin Yaroshenko’s case. But the priority issue now is the place where he will be transferred," Tarasov said.
Consul of Russia’s Consulate General in New York Artyom Tevanyan earlier told TASS that Yaroshenko would be shortly transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Loretto in Pennsylvania, a US low-security federal prison for male inmates, located 140 km east of Pittsburgh. It was built in 1985 and is designed to hold 988 inmates.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Russia would continue seeking Yaroshenko’s return to his home country, in particular, on the basis of the 1983 Council of Europe’s Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. According to the spokeswoman, the Russian national’s transfer to another US penitentiary institution "was explained by the care for the personal security of our fellow citizen who was recently attacked by another inmate."
Yaroshenko’s wife Victoria earlier told TASS that her husband feared his transfer from the Fort Dix prison in the state of New Jersey to the Loretto, because conditions there were "much worse." She also said the jailed pilot’s family hoped to visit him before the beginning of winter and filed documents for formalizing visas for the United States.
Yaroshenko’s case
Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in May 2010, and was later secretly transferred to the United States. In April 2011, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to smuggle a major drug shipment into the US, and sentenced him to 20 years behind bars. However, Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty, saying his arrest was a provocation and the case was fabricated.
Moscow has many times requested that Washington extradite the pilot to Russia.