ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 11, 2005 Saturday 7:50 AM Eastern Time
Armenian pilots released in Equatorial Guinea return home
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
Armenian pilots who got out of jail in Equatorial Guinea a few days
ago have returned home.
In January 2004, crew captain Ashor Karapetian and pilots Samvel
Darbinian, Samvel Machkalian, Ramzik Khachatrian, Suren Muradian, and
Ashot Simonian left on a contract for Africa as the crew of an
Antonov-12 turboprop.
As the were leaving their homeland, however, they could not even
image that the authorities of Equatorial Guinea would put them into
jail a mere two months later on the charges that they had taken part
in an attempted military coup.
In November 2004, a Guinean court sentenced Karapetian to 24 years in
jail and the rest of the crew, to 14 years.
The country’s President pardoned them, however, by a decree issued
June 6, 2005.
Their route back home lay via Zurich and Moscow, where they addressed
a news conference at Itar-Tass headquarters.
One of the things they told reporters Friday was that they had been
kept in shackles for 15 months.
Ara Abramian, the president of the World Armenian Congress and the
Union of Russian Armenians, played a crucial role in attaining their
release.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the release it was
satisfied with the fact. It thanked the President and other
government officials of Equatorial Guinea for a show of understanding
of the problem.