A Venezuelan court has sentenced two Ukrainian sailors to nine years in prison for drug smuggling, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
A court ruling was announced on Friday, August 13, the press service said.
"We are saddened by this decision and will do our best to seek an early release for the sailors and their extradition to Ukraine," the press service said.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine newspaper reported that under local laws, the sentence would come into force after ten days. Then the Ukrainians face being sent to one of the world’s worst prison colonies, on the island of Margarita in the Caribbean Sea.
"This place is infamous, and few people have managed to return from there," the newspaper wrote.
The relatives of the sailors have said they hope that the men are extradited to Ukraine.
As reported, two Ukrainian crewmembers of the B Atlantic vessel were arrested in the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo on August 13, 2007 on suspicion of being involved in the illegal smuggling of 128 kilograms of drugs (cocaine).
The trial on this case is delayed, so the Ukrainian president and the foreign minister have sent letters to the Venezuelan leadership, asking it to conduct the trial of the Ukrainian citizens under proper conditions.
