Five Russian pilots are released from prison

FIVE RUSSIAN PILOTS ARE RELEASED FROM PRISON

It was with a feeling of justice being done that the Russian Orthodox Church learned a joyful news of the release of five Russians, Alexander Klishin, Igor Moskvitin, Yevgeny Antimenko, Oleg Gaidash and Igor Timmermann, the pilots of civil aviation who were sentenced by the court of Calcutta, India, to life imprisonment in February 2000. The act of individual pardon of the Russian pilots was signed by the President of India in accordance with Article 72 of the Constitution of India.

Our compatriots lived in hard conditions in prison from 22 December 1995. The Russian pilots were accused in committing a grave crime on nine articles of the Criminal Code of India. The main accusation was their ‘participation in the conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate government of India’. The accusations brought against the Russian pilots were based on false evidence and falsification of events.

Concerned with the destiny of the compatriots, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia has twice addressed the Prime Minister of India.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly sent notes to the Embassy of India in Moscow.

An International Committee for Humanitarian Support of the pilots was set up on the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Committee has conducted legal, moral and medical assistance to the pilots. Priest Dionisy Pozdnyaev, a staff member of the Department for External Church Relations, has taken spiritual care of the prisoners and consoled them. By God’s Providence they were honoured to receive the Sacrament of Holy Baptism during the difficult time of their stay in prison.

We can say now that the release of our compatriots has been reached through common efforts of the governmental structures – the Administration of the President, the Council of the Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Russia – and the Russian Orthodox Church.

On July 25, at Sheremetyevo-2 airport the released from the prison Russians were met by staff members of the DECR MP Archpriest Nikolay Balashov and Priest Vitaly Zubkov, by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and members of the International Committee for Humanitarian Support of the pilots.

At 10.00 a.m. on July 26 the DECR Chairman Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad met with the crew at the premises of the Department. Representatives of mass media were invited to the meeting.

A press conference was held at the National Institute of the Press at 12.00 a.m. on July 27.