‘There is no justice here’ – Russian pilot jailed in US tells of kidnap, torture & lies

[senheiser]

‘There is no justice here’ – Russian pilot jailed in US tells of kidnap, torture & lies
Published time: 12 Feb, 2016 10:37
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Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko © / Sputnik

READ MORE: Russia insists on examining jailed Russian pilot in US prison after health complaints

Yaroshenko also said in the interview that the prison administration had repeatedly punished him for negative statements about the United States and American democracy. “Recently they asked me why I was complaining to the Russian consular services and the Russian embassy. But who else can I complain to? I am a Russian citizen, I have not come here by myself, I was kidnapped, tortured and beaten. This is the place where it is better to forget about human rights,” he noted.

Konstantin Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in jail in the United States in 2011 for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the country. However, the charges against the Russian are based on testimony of US agents who launched a sting operation against him. He was arrested in Liberia and flown to the US without 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 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.

“What were their charges against me? The papers said that Yaroshenko understood what the agents were talking about. This is it. But this is absurd - I did not even speak English at that moment. Are they clairvoyants? How do they know the thoughts of other people?” he asked. “Besides, even if I understood what they were talking about, this does not mean that I agreed with what the agents planned to do. It was not my plan, but the agents’.”

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

READ MORE: ‘I was framed because of Bout’ – jailed Russian pilot

In 2015 Russia launched a criminal case against 11 US agents and four Liberian police officers over suspicions that they took part in the sting operation that ended in Yaroshenko’s detention. The suspects were charged in absentia with kidnapping, threats of violence and forcing a person to testify in a criminal process by using intimidation or torture. In Russia, these crimes are punishable with prison sentences of up to 12 years.

 

[somebozo]

Time of Mother Russia to retaliate..how about kidnapping some US soldiers from Iraq via Syria and punishing them for assisting infiltration of IS??

 

[simple Brain]

Time of Mother Russia to retaliate..how about kidnapping some US soldiers from Iraq via Syria and punishing them for assisting infiltration of IS??

Awesome Idea, I couldn't have said it better than that...

 

[Penguin]

Perhaps you should first read up on the story concerning his arrest and sentencing.
The sting: an American drugs bust in west Africa | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee | World news | The Guardian
Russia accuses U.S. of kidnapping pilot in Liberia

 

[hussain0216]

Russians complaining about kidnap and torture

 

[Penguin]

Konstantin Dolgov, author of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Report
...
‘Extraterritorial application of American laws … leads to violations of the basic rights and freedoms of Russians, including arbitrary arrests and abductions from third countries, ill-treatment, criminal prosecution based on the basis of evidence given by false agents and doubtful evidence (cases against Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko are the most striking examples),’ the report said.

If Bout and Yaroshenko are really the best examples he can come up with, you’d be forgiven from wondering what Dolgov actually means by ‘basic rights and freedoms’.

Bout, known as the ‘merchant of death’, was convicted in November of gun running, and awaits sentencing in a US jail. Campaigners accuse him of selling weapons used in many of the most gruesome wars since 1991. Russia was furious about his extradition from Thailand, where he was arrested, possibly because he used to work for the security services. It is peculiar for a human rights report to champion the cause of a convicted arms smuggler, but perhaps not as strange as Dolgov’s second example.

Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia with four tons of cocaine in 2010, extradited to America and convicted. Quite how his case qualifies as a human rights violation remains unclear from Dolgov’s report, though Washington’s failure to inform Moscow before fly him to America explains the annoyance felt in the Foreign Ministry.

Poking with the human rights stick « Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Perhaps you should first read up on the story concerning his arrest and sentencing.
The sting: an American drugs bust in west Africa | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee | World news | The Guardian
Russia accuses U.S. of kidnapping pilot in Liberia

LOL! They were nabbed in a drug sting recorded by the stepson of the President of Liberia.

I think extradition was instantaneous.

 

[Penguin]

4 tons worth