Russia’s acquittal of the son of Tajikistan's railway boss, convicted for drug trafficking, is not linked to the release of a Russian pilot jailed in Tajikistan, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry firmly denies any link between those two cases. Moreover, we are still convinced that the guilty verdict for [Russian and Estonian pilots] Sadovnichy and Rudenko was baseless,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russian national Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian national Alexei Rudenko were arrested after flying into southern Tajikistan in March 2011 and jailed on November 8. After Moscow said the charges were "politically motivated” and deported several hundred Tajik migrant workers, their sentences were reduced to two and a half years and the pilots were released in an amnesty.
Some media hinted that the detention of the Russian pilot was linked to the arrest of Tajik-born Rustam Khukumov, the son of Amonullo Khukumov, chairman of Tajik Railways. Khukumov, 24, along with three other Tajik nationals, was detained near Moscow in 2008 in possession of nine kg of Afghan heroin and was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison.
His lawyer announced last week that Khukumov was cleared of all charges and released, because his involvement was not proven.
