US authorities have agreed to an emergency medical examination of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko – who is serving a 20 year prison sentence in America following pressure from the Russian diplomats and FM Sergey Lavrov.
“The health of the unjustly imprisoned Russian citizen
Konstantin Yaroshenko is still a cause for serious concern,”
Russianforeign ministry human rights representative Konstantin
Dolgov said on Monday.
“Thanks to the efforts of his lawyer and our diplomats we
have been able to make sure he is seen by specialists.”
Last week Yaroshenko’s lawyer said that his client had been
suffering from severe shortness of breath and speech problems due
to a heart ailment, and could die within days. He claimed that he
was being denied medical assistance at his incarceration facility
in Fort Dix in New Jersey.
“We have no intention of accepting a situation where due to
negligence from the federal authorities and the prison management
Yaroshenko’s life has been put in danger,” said Dolgov.
“We hope that our doctors will be allowed to visit him
alongside American physicians before settling on the best course
of treatment.”
Yaroshenko was abducted by American special agents in Liberia
back in 2010 and forwarded to the US without notifying either the
Russian authorities or the family. In September 2011, he was
found guilty of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the US and
sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
The United States initially said Yaroshenko did not request
medical assistance from the prison administrators, and later said
it could not publicly comment on his health unless he signed a
privacy waiver. It also encouraged Russian representatives to
directly contact his low-security correctional facility.
On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that
Yaroshenko must be fully examined by medical professionals from a
Russian diplomatic facility. He added that the statements from US
officials, which say that Yaroshenko has no health problems, are
not true.
Lyubov Yaroshenko, the mother of the jailed Russian pilot,
insists her son is innocent and is being left to suffer for no
reason.
“He is not guilty,” she told RT. “Why are they
driving him to his death? What did he do wrong? I keep asking
what evil did he cause to the United States? What did he do? Did
he kill somebody? Did he rob somebody? No. He's not guilty of any
crime.”
Yaroshenko’s wife Victoria confirmed to RT that her husband has
been seeking medical attention on a regular basis since his
arrest four years ago. She is “shocked” at the lack of medical
treatment – even in critical cases – despite numerous requests.
“Yaroshenko did appear sick to me,” his lawyer Aleksey
Tarasov earlier told RT. “His face was red, he visibly had
shortness of breath, he would take pauses in our conversation to
compose himself. He was having difficulty remembering the dates
and the chronology of different events that took place this week.
Shortness of breath, burning sensations in the chest, high blood
pressure – these symptoms are indicative of a soon to happen
heart attack.”