Belarusian Foreign Ministry asks Thailand to release Petukhov on bail

Belarusian Embassy in Vietnam has sent a note to Thailand with a request to release on bail a crewmember of Ilyushin-76 cargo jet arrested by the Thai.

As BelaTA was informed by the deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry's press service, Maryja Vanshyna, the Belarusian diplomatic mission in Hanoi keeps the situation under control and maintains permanent contacts with Kazakhstani diplomats accredited in Bangkok.

On December 17 lawyers met with members of the Ilyushin-76's crew. "The pilots feel well and don't have any claims against the conditions they are kept in or meals," she said. This information confirms reports earlier received by the Belarusian consul in his phone conversation with our citizen right after detention.

The Foreign Ministry emphasizes that the current situation affects interests of the detained and of their relatives. “In this connection the Foreign Ministry addresses mass media representatives with an urgent request to cover this situation with maximum delicacy and responsibility. In particular, proceeding from these considerations, we find absolutely unacceptable from moral point of view dissemination of any speculations about possible verdict for pilots before the official court decision is made,” Maryja Vanshyna said.

As charter97.org website previously reported, foreign mass media offer different versions of the arms origin found on board of Ilyushin-76 aircraft detained in Thailand on December 12, BelaPAN informs.

The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, with a reference to its Ukrainian sources states that the plane originally set off from Belarus. It stopped for refueling in Kyiv before flying to North Korea. The newspaper notes that 40 tons of weapons and ammunition were loaded in Pyongyang.

As Times Online reports with a reference to Hugh Griffiths, a weapons expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, before spring 2009 Il-76 4L-AWA was owned by Kazakh private aircraft company East Wind. Then it was bought by another Kazakh company Beirbas, connected with Serbian arms trafficker Tomislav Damnjanovic. In October this year the aircraft was sold to Georgian company Air West Georgia, and from it was leased by SP Traiding Ltd registered in New Zealand. Grifiths states that earlier the plane was owned by one of firms controlled by Viktor Bout, Russian arms dealer who is in Thai prison now.