Russian jailed for killing air traffic controller

A Swiss court today sentenced a Russian architect to eight years in prison for the premeditated homicide of an air traffic controller who was on duty at the time of a mid-air plane collision in which the Russian man’s wife and children were killed.

The Zurich Superior Court found Vitaly Kaloyev guilty of premeditated homicide, which is a lesser charge than murder and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison under Swiss law.

Kaloyev had acknowledged that he must have killed Peter Nielsen in February 2004, but said he could not remember the slaying.

Zurich state prosecutor Ulrich Weder had asked the court for a 12-year prison term, asserting that the killing was clearly premeditated homicide, but fell short of murder because Kaloyev had not acted out of malice.

Kaloyev, 49, told the court yesterday that he had not wanted to cause any physical harm and only sought an apology from the head of the air navigation service Skyguide, which he called the “main culprit” in the July 1, 2002, air crash that killed his family.

Nielsen, 36, died of multiple stab wounds in front of his wife in his back yard. Kaloyev was later arrested in Zurich.

Kaloyev’s lawyers pleaded for manslaughter and said the defendant was tormented by great psychological distress at the time of the crime.

They said any prison term should not exceed three years.