MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Prominent Russian blogger Ilya Varlamov has said that the pilots of the plane on board which he and Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov planned to travel from Kapoeta to Juba in South Sudan have also been detained.
"Our pilots have also been detained. In all, citizens of Russia, Canada, Uganda, and Kenya have now been detained in a case concerning a drone (which I don't have, but which someone supposedly saw me using to take pictures)," Varlamov said on Telegram.
It was reported earlier that Verzilov and Varlamov had been detained in Kapoeta.
"I, blogger Ilya Varlamov, and three others have just been arrested by the National Security Service in the city of Kapoeta in the east of South Sudan over 'suspicion of having a drone,'" Verzilov said on Twitter.
He said they did not have a drone.
Varlamov confirmed the detention on Telegram. He said they were being kept in a cell and awaiting "some sort of full inspection."
Varlamov also said on his website that he, Verzilov, and three other people had arrived at Kapoeta Airport to travel to South Sudan's capital Juba, but local authorities removed them from the plane, searched their luggage, and detained them.
"They saw a remote control for a drone, but the drone itself was taken away from me at the airport in the city of Entebbe in Uganda. And they decided for some reason that we were flying a drone, although we weren't," Varlamov said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russian diplomats are undertaking efforts to ensure the release of the Russians detained in South Sudan. "The Russian embassy to Uganda and South Sudan (combined) is in contact with the Russian citizens and is making efforts to ensure their release," Zakharova said.