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Russian pilot remains in Danbury prison in US despite transfer request, wife says

According to earlier reports, the Russian Consulate in New York is verifying reports that the Russian pilot is not getting medical treatment in prison

Konstantin Yaroshenko Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

Konstantin Yaroshenko

© Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 11. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US, remains in the Danbury prison in Connecticut, although he has requested to be transferred to another penitentiary facility due to lack of medical care, the pilot’s wife Viktoria told TASS on Monday.

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Russian pilot Yaroshenko may be transferred to another US prison — diplomatic mission

According to earlier reports, the Russian Consulate in New York is verifying reports that the Russian pilot is not getting medical treatment in prison. In November 2018, Yaroshenko requested the prison authorities provide him with medical assistance for his toothache, which was also the cause of digestion problems as he was not able to eat normally.

When asked whether Konstantin had been transferred to another prison, Viktoria answered in the negative. According to her, her husband’s condition has not changed. Russian consular workers are expected to visit him on Wednesday.

Viktoria said earlier that Konstantin had succeeded in receiving medical assistance in the Fort Dix prison, New Jersey, where he had been kept until the summer of 2018.

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.

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

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