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US embassy ignores letter requesting Russian pilot's pardon, his wife says

Judging by the dispatch report, the delivery man brought the letter to the address but it was not accepted there, Konstantin Yaroshenko's wife explained

ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 3. /TASS/. The US Embassy in Moscow did not accept a letter from the family of pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a sentence in Danbury city, Connecticut, asking for his pardon, the Russian national’s wife Viktoria Yaroshenko told TASS on Thursday.

In the letter the wife and daughter addressed US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Our appeal was sent to the US Embassy in Moscow. I should have received an SMS message on Monday that it [letter] was received. On Monday they had a day off, but still nothing. Judging by the dispatch report, the delivery man brought the letter to the address but it was not accepted there. Now it is coming back," Yaroshenko said.

The Russian pilot's wife stated that while sending the letter, she put the US Embassy in Moscow’s address and phone number from the diplomatic mission’s website. According to Yaroshenko, two more letters were sent directly to the US.

On Monday, it was reported that Yaroshenko’s family wrote a letter to Biden asking for a pardon. The letter indicated that the pilot’s wife and daughter were able to see him only twice during the time of man’s imprisonment - in 2011 and 2018. According to the Russian national’s lawyer Alexey Tarasov, the petition "is based on humanitarian reasons", it emphasizes that Yaroshenko "suffers from a number of diseases, he cannot regularly see his relatives".

Victoria Yaroshenko recalled that this was the third petition for pardon of her husband sent to the US top leadership. "In the previous two times, there was also no answer - neither about the receipt nor about the time frame for consideration," she said. The wife previously reported that the pilot continued to complain about his health condition, including problems with blood pressure, however, the healthcare unit ignored his complaints, while his appeal to the prison’s chief was also ignored.

The Yaroshenko case

Konstantin Yaroshenko was sentenced in the United States on September 7, 2011, to 20 years in prison. He denies his guilt, slamming his arrest as a provocation, and castigating the whole affair as a fabricated case. The pilot was brought to the United States from Liberia, where he was arrested on May 28, 2010. Undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents allegedly accused him of a "criminal conspiracy" to transport a large batch of cocaine.

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