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Russian diplomats keep eye on jailed Russian pilot’s prison conditions

Yaroshenko’s wife Viktoria and daughter Yekaterina are returning to Moscow on September 11

NEW YORK, September 12. /TASS/. The Russian Consulate General in New York "keeps under special control" prison conditions of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year term in a US jail, the Russian diplomatic mission said in a Twiitter statement on Tuesday.

"The Consulate General keeps under special control matters of ensuring due incarceration conditions for K. Yaroshenko and the respect of his legitimate rights and freedoms," the Russian consulate said.

Russian diplomats said that Yaroshenko’s wife Viktoria and daughter Yekaterina "are returning to Moscow on September 11."

The jailed pilot’s family arrived in the United States in late August. Their first meeting in seven years took place on August 24 and lasted about eight hours. In total, Viktoria and Yekaterina visited Yaroshenko in prison 12 times.

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