Speaking to Igor Moskvitin one wonders how he can have such a wonderful optimism and such a love for people after so hard a time. He tells his five-year story like an anecdote after the nightmare has finally ended.
Before his arrest, Moskvitin had been working as a pilot for Aeroflot, then for Latavio on passenger airplanes which flew to Helsinki, Warsaw, Stockholm. They also had flights to Burgos in northern Spain. Burgos is the place where in December 1995 they took off with the freight plane containing weapons.
"As a crew we don't have the right to check the freighter. What if is some valuable load? When I came to the flight, the freighter already was checked and the cargo recorded. It had gone through the depository, customs point and border. There was no thought to check. I, as a pilot, never even go in freight compartment. Nothing seemed to be suspicious, and no I didn't have a particular will to check it," said Moskvitin.
The airmen, all ethnic Russians who resided in Latvia, except for Brit Peter Bliech, were arrested at Bombay International Airport, but the airplane's owner escaped right away. The airmen were kept in jail from 1995 and finally sentenced to life imprisonment on Feb. 2 this year for weapons contraband and conspiracy with the aim to overthrow the West Bengalian goverment.
In India the jail system is like in the Middle Ages, Moskvitin said. Time had no value at all and, Moskvitin said, many Indians did not understand the prisoners' daily stress because Indians believe the next life will be long and happy. Days were the same.
"At the beginning we lived three in one ward 6 m, and that was very difficult. In the wall was one hole. That was the airconditioner and most of the time the temperature was +40 (104F) - heavy air with no oxygen. The first year was the most difficult. A rash covered my skin, and I didn't know how to struggle with the burning. I had no means to protect myself. Through ignorance, we made mistakes. In India, malaria is widespread, so it made me mad to think that a mosquito had bitten me, or is it malaria? - an illness from which people die."
Moskvitin complained about terrible sanitary conditions. The jail had a special hole where one could get water. The local people there didn't use toilet paper, but water instead, Moskvitin said. The same cup fills all functions, even the washing of vegetables. Each moment threatened a serious infection.
"If we lived with the sense of time that the Indians have, we would never survive," said Moskvitin.
"'We must beat the system,'" said the British pilot who was with us," recounted Moskvitin.
Peter Bliech, 49, from Great Britain is still in prison in Calcutta. He shared the plane with the Russian pilots. Moskvitin thinks the British government's Ministry of Justice has an ambiguous, fragmented attitude about Bliech's case, that the reaction was not adequate.
"The British tried to put the case back as far as they could. There has been very little official help," said Moskvitin. "Soap, shampoo, toothpaste is the obvious help that reached Peter from England."
Moskvitin thinks that only some international peace organization can help him to get out. For now, there is nothing else.
"He is a strong man, and I think he will get what he wants. He has lots of evidence that will clear him. The BBC made a documentary about the case. They filmed in Riga, London, Copenhagen and Calcutta," said Moskvitin.
The first year passed without progress toward release. With extreme actions - a hunger strike - they tried to move the process. For that, 50 to 60 jail employees beat them, Moskvitin said.
Russians' defense meant nothing to India's authorities, he said. Latvia's deputy secretary of state, Janis Karklins, went to India three times. A lawyer told them their case was in the wrong court, because they had been charged as war initiators and capital punishment was due them. Police chairmen who were interrogated for three months provided the first evidence for them. All together there were approximately 330 witnesses in the case.
"At first when we had no contacts with Russian and Latvian representatives, it was very tough. There were no guarantees or promises. We experienced all kinds of stress endlessly, as we knew we were not guilty. We thought the case would last until a certain point and we would be free," Moskvitin said.
"According to India's rules, there should be a prosecution within three months. When we passed the first investigation in January, 1996, they told us we were not guilty, but they needed two weeks to order their documents, so we had to stay. After that we would be free. It was a police office, so dirty and disgusting it was not possible even to stand.
"They told us we'd be better off in jail. Then they forgot about us - nobody came looking for us, nobody asked questions. After one and a half months the prosecutors started to ask stupid questions and show us documents that had no connections with our case. We waited three months, but they disappeared without a trace," said Moskvitin.
A lawyer without a convincing personality kept promising to work with the captives, but came only a couple of times a month.
Moskvitin had a negative impression of his captors.
"The society there was very flaky and devised. The attitude against each other was contemptuous. That was very annoying and difficult to stand. One can't get used to it. People humiliate each other and make one another feel little.
"If a person wanted to give you something, they didn't put it in your hands but threw it on you. It doesn't matter if it's a doctor or a clerk. I took it very hard and that kept me continually depressed because it was on each step. Society is divided in a caste system. I couldn't understand why people had such a bad attitude against each other. Sometimes even a prisoner got better treatment."
Moskvitin spent one and a half years in a hospital with tuberculosis "They have one rule - you cannot die in jail. To die in a hospital is normal. Actually the place doesn't have any connection with medicine. Everything was dirty and unsuitable. Solely there were beds."
In jail, the pilots slept on the concrete floor.
During five years they got used to each other. Now Moskvitin has a feeling that he is missing something. But asked about conflicts with the others in the group, Moskvitin said "it's not possible to live without conflicts. Could have been worse - I think we spent the time honorably. Maybe there were some social details that had no connection to serious discords."
In 1998 with the help of the Russian Orthodox Church, finally came rescue. Father Dionisy from Moscow, who was following pilots' story, came to Calcutta. With the help of the Mother Teresa organization, Sisters of Mercy, Father Dionisy got permission to visit the pilots. He baptized them in jail.
"With his appearance, we realized that there was still hope, a means that could help us," Moskvitin said.
Moskvitin is convinced they would never see a just court. Even much evidence for them doesn't make sense.
"It's a tragedy, a seriously confused political case," Moskvitin said. "The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, had no other way but to demand that the president of India free the pilots."
Five years for Igor seems to be a faraway nightmare now.
"I have started to look deeper on things and started to separate important and less important, because around us are so many trifles. The time has influenced so much on our consciousness. It's unbelievable that I am together with my family again."
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