Jailed Russian pilot accuses US prison authorities of discrimination

Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in the US in violation of standard international legal procedures, has said that prison authorities are discriminating against him by denying visits and infringing his right to practice the Russian Orthodox faith.

“No one is visiting me apart from Russian diplomats, while Americans have several visits per week. Apart from this, the inmates of different faiths enjoy such privileges that a Russian Orthodox man cannot even dream of,” Yaroshenko said in comments with popular Russian daily Izvestia.

He added that while inmates of various religions were allowed to eat special food and celebrate their religious holidays, he was not allowed even an icon and a pectoral cross.

“They refuse to let me have them every year, citing various excuses. What is this, if not discrimination based on religion and ethnicity,” Yaroshenko said.

A Russian Orthodox priest who planned to visit the jailed Russian pilot has confirmed that he faced obstacles while attempting to do so.

In 2011, Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in a US jail for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the country. However, the charges against the Russian are based on the testimony of US agents who launched a sting operation against him. He was arrested in Liberia and flown to the US without any official extradition procedure, despite protests from Russia and violations of the diplomatic code.

The pilot himself has always maintained his innocence, and insisted from the very beginning that his case was not about drug trafficking. He says his poor command of English prevented him from understanding the nature of suggestions made to him by undercover DEA agents.

Yaroshenko’s defense team has repeatedly stated that the whole plan was organized by US special services in an attempt to extract evidence against Russian citizen Viktor Bout, the owner of a transport company who was also extradited in dubious circumstances to the US and sentenced after a DEA sting operation.

https://www.rt.com/politics/405535-j...ot-accuses-us/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Klondyke

violation of standard international legal procedures

---

What'd he do?

Russia accuses U.S. of kidnapping pilot in Liberia

Russia accuses U.S. of kidnapping pilot in Liberia

By Mansur Mirovalev
Thursday, July 22, 2010


MOSCOW -- The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the United States on Wednesday of "kidnapping" a Russian pilot in the West African country of Liberia for alleged drug smuggling.
Konstantin Yaroshenko, 41, was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, in late May -- by U.S. agents, Russian officials said -- and extradited to New York.
Yaroshenko was charged with smuggling "thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine" throughout South America, Africa and Europe, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement Wednesday.
DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said Yaroshenko was apprehended May 28 by Liberian authorities, who turned him over to the DEA two days later under an arrest warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.


"While he was in DEA custody, the DEA followed the rules of law and the Geneva Convention regulations regarding treatment of a defendant," the statement said.
Russia's Foreign Ministry sharply condemned Yaroshenko's arrest and extradition.
"We're talking about a kidnapping of a Russian national from a third country," the ministry said Wednesday in a statement on its Web site. "The actions of U.S. special services in the forcible and secret relocation of our national from Monrovia to New York could only [be] seen as open lawlessness."
Asked about the case at a news briefing, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that he would defer to the Justice Department or the DEA on specifics.
Upon his arrival in New York, Yaroshenko was given access to a Russian Consulate official, Crowley said.
Yaroshenko's attorney, Alexander Bozhenko, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying that the way Yaroshenko was arrested was illegal and that he was kept tied up in a hotel room, naked and without water, for two days.
A U.S. attorney for Yaroshenko, Sam Schmidt, said Wednesday that his "understanding was [his client] was not treated well" in Liberia but that he is "doing OK" in the U.S. prison system.
He said Yaroshenko was not extradited but instead was expelled by the Liberian government just before he was taken into custody by Liberian authorities and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and brought to New York.
"Somehow from this existing expulsion order, the DEA took custody of him without notifying the Russian Embassy or Consulate or anyone else," Schmidt said.