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U.S. court to start hearing case of suspected Russian cocaine-smuggling pilot

13 August 2010 05:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A U.S. court will hold pre-trial hearings into the case of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was arrested in Liberia on charges of drug trafficking and transferred to the United States, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

The pre-trial hearings will start at noon local time at New York’s Southern District court.

Yaroshenko’s Russian lawyers said on Thursday that the defense would seek to postpone hearings into the case, but a court spokesman said the session would go ahead as scheduled.

During the session the judge expects to find out why it took the prosecutors so long to prepare additional documents, which delayed the start of the court proceedings, Yaroshenko’s U.S. lawyer told RIA Novosti

Yaroshenko, 41, was detained by U.S. intelligence agencies in late May on charges of trafficking cocaine to South America, Africa and Europe, mainly from Liberia and Venezuela.

The Russian Foreign Ministry blasted the United States over the detention, saying it was practically a kidnapping and a violation of international law.

Yaroshenko and other alleged members of the cocaine trafficking group have denied all charges. If they are convicted, they may face from 10 years imprisonment to life sentences.