Russian pilot spoke about the arrest in Tajikistan
Upon returning to Moscow, Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy said that when detained at a Tajik airport, law enforcement officers asked if he was working for the Afghan army. His words are reported by RIA Novosti. The same question was asked of his colleague, the Estonian pilot Alexei Rudenko.
After the arrest, the crews of both aircraft (eight people) were taken to a hotel and placed under arrest. According to Sadovnichy, security officials persuaded them not to publicize the case: "Everything is fine, just don’t make noise. If you start making noise, you will only make yourself worse." The same thing, the pilot noted, “these people” were said at the Russian embassy in Tajikistan.
According to the Russian pilot, the crews of the aircraft were arrested so that they could pick up both An-72 aircraft, on which they flew from Kabul. Sadovnichy noted that the An-72 is ideal for flights in Central Asia. Thus, the pilot denied that the case was political.
Earlier in an interview with Gazeta.ru, he said that they asked the Rolkan CEO Sergey Poluyanov, who owned the planes, to sell cars for a ruble or to issue a gift certificate. In this case, the pilots were promised to be released.
Since Poluyanov did not make a deal, two pilots spent at first in a hotel and then in a pre-trial detention center for nine months. The remaining crew members were released two months after the arrest.
The crews of two An-72 were detained at the Kurgan-Tyube airport on March 12, 2011. Tajik authorities accused aircraft captains of illegally crossing the state border and smuggling. According to investigators, the pilots did not have permission to land at the Tajik airport. Smuggled was considered a disassembled engine from the An-72 in one of the aircraft.
The defense insisted that, firstly, the permit was properly issued, and, secondly, the pilots could no longer return to Kabul, because they would not have enough fuel. As for the engine, Sadovnichy said that they did not intend to unload it in Tajikistan, which means it cannot be smuggled. "According to the laws, border crossing is considered the moment when the cargo is unloaded from the plane. And this engine remained inside," he explained in an interview with Gazeta.ru.
The verdict was issued to pilots in early November. In accordance with the decision of the city court, they were sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Both aircraft were confiscated in favor of Tajikistan.
After the sentencing, Russia reacted to it. The Russian side declared the verdict "politically biased" and excessively harsh, after which raids on Tajik workers began in Moscow and other regions of the country. As a result, more than 100 Tajik citizens were expelled from Russia.
On November 17, Tajik Prosecutor General Sherkhon Salimzoda promised that the verdict would be commuted to the pilots. The prosecutor's office requested a reduction in the term for Sadovnichy and Rudenko to a higher court. On November 22, the terms for pilots were reduced to two and a half years, and taking into account the two-year amnesty, to six months. Since by that time they had been in custody for nine months, the pilots were released in the courthouse. The court did not set aside the decision to confiscate the aircraft.
https://mylenta.com/blog/43377323835/Ros ... zhikistane
