MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, jailed in the United States, is afraid to speak out about the conditions of his incarceration out of fears of being punished, his wife Victoria said Tuesday.
"Of course, he does not tell us everything over the phone as he will be in solitary confinement the next day. He is always living under constraint," she told a press conference.
Yaroshenko did not receive any help from prison staff when he underwent an operation, his cellmates were the only ones to provide assistance to him, his wife said.
The pilot was operated on in a Trenton, New Jersey, hospital in January after first complaining of health problems in 2014, three years after he was sent to the Fort Dix Prison for alleged drug trafficking.
"Only his cellmates were helping him after the operation when he did not feel well… The warden did not give him a stretcher," she said at a press conference.
Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly conspiring to import more than $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and subsequently extradited to the United States.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly expressed concern over the circumstances of Yaroshenko's arrest and the poor conditions of his detention.
