DUSHANBE, November 10, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda has noted that it cannot be ruled out that in case of an appropriate request the jailed pilots may be extradited so that they could serve their sentences in their homelands.
Tajik chief prosecutor remarked this at a news conference in Dushanbe on November 10.
“The issue of transferring jailed persons is regulated by the CIS Convention on Transfer of Convicted Persons for Further Serving Their Sentences,” said Salimzoda, “Under this Convention, if appropriate requests are made, we will consider and solve this issue.”
As far as two Antonov AN-72s are concerned, the prosecutor said they were confiscated following the court’s decision.
Salimzoda noted that the pilots had asked Tajikaeronavigatsiya (Tajik air navigation service) for emergency landing at the Qurghon Teppa airport several times. “According to the investigation materials, after another refusal one of the pilots — Vladimir Sadovnichiy – said, “I ask permission for emergency landing at the Qurghon Teppa airport, following which you may arrest the aircraft,” Salimzoda said.
We will recall that the Qurghon Teppa city court sentenced Captain Vladimir Sadovnichiy (Russian national) and Captain Aleksey Rudenko (citizen of Estonia) to 8 ½ years in prison each on November 8. The sentence followed their conviction on charges of smuggling, illegal border crossing, and violating international air carriage regulations.
The pilots were arrested in March, when the An-72 cargo planes they were piloting landed at the Qurghon Teppa airport for unscheduled refueling en route to Russia from Afghanistan. The cargo of one of the planes included a disassembled aircraft engine that was not listed on the customs declaration. Both of the planes, owned by Rolkan Investment Ltd., a private company domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, were confiscated by Tajik authorities.
