The Dominican Republic will issue an international arrest warrant for two French pilots who slipped out of the country and returned home after being sentenced to 20 years for drug running, the attorney general said Tuesday.

"We are proceeding with a request for an international arrest warrant for the pilots involved," Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said in a statement, after the pilots -- who were free pending appeal but barred from leaving the country -- turned up in France insisting they were seeking justice after being wrongly convicted.