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US Embassy representatives received pardon plea from Russian pilot Yaroshenko’s family

The Russian pilot’s wife earlier said that he continues to complain about his health condition

ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 7. /TASS/. The US Embassy in Moscow has received a letter written by the wife and the daughter of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving his time in a US prison in Connecticut, where they appeal to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pardon him, a representative of the diplomatic mission picked up the letter from a post office, Viktoria Yaroshenko, Konstantin Yaroshenko’s wife, told TASS on Monday.

"The letter was found. It turns out that the procedure of receiving letters was changed in the embassy due to the pandemic. Instead, a courier comes from the embassy to pick up these letters," she said. "Our appeal has been fetched now, it is already in the embassy. I received a notification."

Last week, she said that the letter, already a third appeal to the US leadership to pardon Yaroshenko, had not been received in US Embassy in Moscow.

It was reported last week that Yaroshenko’s family had written a letter to Biden containing a pardon plea. The appeal stresses that his wife and daughter has only two opportunities to see him in person, in 2011 and 2018. It is noted that the family still harbors hope to bring him home.

The Russian pilot’s wife earlier said that he continues to complain about his health condition, including blood pressure issues. At the same time, the prison’s medical department is ignoring his complaints.

Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States on September 7, 2011. 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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