PARIS, Muharram 14, 1437, Oct 27, 2015, SPA -- A French pilot facing 20 years imprisonment over a cocaine conviction in the Dominican Republic said Tuesday that he and a fellow pilot fled across the Atlantic rather than wait for a ruling on their appeal, AP reported. "We're dealing with a judicial system ... that condemned us to 20 years for the sole reason we were French," said Pascal Jean Fauret, who escaped with fellow pilot and defendant Bruno Odos. Odos did not attend the news conference. Both men have denied knowing that the private plane they had been hired to fly was carrying 26 suitcases of cocaine. -- SPA 21:27 LOCAL TIME 18:27 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w