Imprisoned Russian Pilot Yaroshenko Mails The Guardian Invitation to Visit Him

Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, imprisoned in the United States, wrote a letter to The Guardian newspaper inviting its contributor to visit him in prison, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – In the letter obtained by Russia's Izvestiya newspaper, Yaroshenko responded to a long-read article issued by The Guardian on March 17, 2015, in which its author, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, wrote about the US intelligence service's operation in Liberia that revealed a large drug trafficking network. Yaroshenko is mentioned throughout the article and plays a key role in its story.

The imprisoned pilot wondered why the author of the article had ignored the opportunity to reach out to him, his lawyers, and family, as well as Russian authorities and law enforcement agencies.

Yaroshenko also invited Bhattacharjee or any one of The Guardian's authors to visit the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution, where he is being held. He also proposed that The Guardian reporters visit his family in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011 on allegations of conspiring to import more than $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States. He was captured in Liberia in 2010 and transferred to the United States, prompting protests from Russia. In April 2016, the Appeals Court of New York denied revising the pilot's sentence.