Today Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia and the World Armenian Congress Ara Abrahamian is leaving for the Equato-Guinean capital of Malabo to settle the issue of release of 6 Armenian pilots, who have been in the local prison for over a year, Regnum news agency reported. It should be reminded that since January 2004 six Armenian pilots had worked in Equatorial Guinea on AN-12 plane registered in Armenia. In the evening of March 7, 2004 they were arrested in Malabo on accusation of participation in an attempt of a coup d'etat and in espionage as hirelings. The court has sentenced to commander of the Armenian crew to 24 years of imprisonment, and the rest of the pilots - to 14 years, while sentencing local residents charged of the same case to a year and a day of punishment. The lawyer of the Armenian pilots has appealed the decision in the Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea. Ara Abrahamian was in Malabo once before. There he met with top officials of Equatorial Guinea. "I met with the prisoners. I managed to organize medical care for them, to provide financial assistance. Our pilots in their turn gave me letters for their relatives," Ara Abrahamian stated. Before his visit to Malabo the WAC head had organized several letters to the Equato-Guinean President from the Pope, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the UN and UNESCO, held a range of talks with the Ambassador of that country in Moscow. "I am confident that the issue will be solved positively and I think before the end of the next week it will be solved finally," A. Abrahamian stated. In his turn, Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty International's Africa Program stated that the prisoners are emaciated with persistent torture and chronic diseases. Besides, the prisoners of the Black Beach prison risk starving to death, as the prison direction has cut their food rations. In response to that, as reported by RFE/RL Special Advisor to Equato-Guinean President Miguel Mifumu stated that the prisoners get enough food and Amnesty International «merely puts pressure upon the country authorities for the prisoners to be released.» «Let them come and see what actually takes place, as the Red Cross has done,» he added.