MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Yaroshenko said in an interview published by the Izvestia daily on Tuesday he was pressured by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons into signing a document requesting his transfer to Russia under the Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
"No, they have not discussed it. Indeed, we have also learned that the document was signed. There is nothing more to add in this case, the decision is behind the US authorities. We have repeatedly spoken about the fact that many of our citizens are, in our view, illegally held in custody in the United States," Peskov told reporters.
Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to import more than $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States, having been arrested in Liberia in 2010 and subsequently extradited to the United States.
Moscow repeatedly expressed concern over the circumstances of the pilot's arrest and the poor conditions of his detention.