MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - The United States is intentionally creating obstacles for obtaining information on the health state of Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko serving time in a U.S. prison, Russian Foreign Ministry Human Rights Ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov said.
"It is difficult to overcome the impression that the U.S. party is intentionally creating obstacles for obtaining objective information of the state of Yaroshenko's health, which keeps deteriorating. Despite the fact that this issue has been raised repeatedly by the Russian foreign minister at meetings and during telephone conversations with the U.S. Secretary of State, the situation does not change for the better," Dolgov said in a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Wednesday.
"While demanding to follow the principles of humanism, Washington is playing cynically the destiny of the person, who has fell victim of the U.S. style politically motivates justice," the document said.
In February prison administration sanctioned medical examination of Yaroshenko by prison doctors under the pressure of Russia but it refused to allow qualified doctors from Moscow and to hold a joint consultation to prescribe necessary treatment, Dolgov said.
"In response to the request to provide the examination results and medical history excuses came that this can not be done without a written permission of Yaroshenko, which does not exist allegedly. When it turned out that the document signed by him does exist, the Russian General Consulate in New York was told that it will take three weeks to consider the application with no guarantees and that the 'service' itself is for a fee," Dolgov said.
According to the information Dolgov received from Yaroshenko's lawyer, the prison authorities have denied the Russian citizen surgery U.S. doctors recommended him.
"The actions of the U.S. authorities regarding Russian citizen Yaroshenko, serving a long-term sentence in the Fort Dix prison, can not be assessed anything but abusive and inhumane," Dolgov said.
Yaroshenko was arrested on March 28, 2010 in Liberia on the accusations of preparing transportation of a large batch of cocaine and then deported to the U.S. The Russian citizen was sentenced to 20 years by a U.S. court on September 7, 2011.
Health state of Yaroshenko deteriorated in February. According to his relatives and lawyer, Yaroshenko experienced chest pains and had trouble breathing.