Russia demands human conditions for pilot sentenced in US

MOSCOW, January 31 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry demands that the pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who has been sentenced to a jail term in the U.S., be immediately placed into humane conditions in jail and be given the medical treatment he is entitled to under international standards, the Foreign Ministry’s ombudsman for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov said Friday.

“We assess the situation around Konstantin V. Yaroshevnko as an absolutely unacceptable one,” Dolgov said. “It is seriously distressful for bilateral relations and collaboration in the sphere of law enforcement.”

“We’ll continue rendering consular and legal assistance to the Russian citizen Yaroshenko, including his medical treatment in compliance with the international law,” he said.

“Moscow believes that the Americans’ refusal to hand over Yaroshenko, who was sentenced by a court in New York, to Russia under the 1983 Convention of the Council of Europe was groundless.

“It’s important to state that the U.S. authorities, which pressed the court into passing a guilty verdict on this Russian citizen, are defending their esprit de corps now in spite of the feebleness of evidence against him,” Dolgov said.

“Along with it, they resort to the apparently contrived and hopeless references to the allegedly heinous nature of the offenses committed by Yaroshenko,” Dolgov said. “Particularly confounding is the cynical oblivion of the humanitarian aspect on the part of the Americans, namely, Yaroshenko’s health that was impaired as a result of beatings and torture he was subjected to in the course of his arrest and the denial of medical aid to him during conviction.”

“It’s important to recall that the U.S. is bearing the full brunt of responsibility for the life and health of our citizen,” Dolgov said. “We demand once again that Yaroshenko be placed into humane conditions without delay and provided with necessary medical treatment in line with international standards.