05 September 2007, 17:23
Relatives of the victims of the Boden Lake tragedy are dissatisfied with the verdict to SkyGuide employees
The employees of the SkyGuide air traffic control company, accused of admitting the crash of two aircrafts in 2002 and sentenced to conditional custody by the Swiss court, can pay money in exchange of their punishment. According to the legislation of Switzerland, in case of a conditional verdict, when a convict has no wish to spend his term behind the bars, he or she may pay 100 Swiss francs (about 82 US dollars) for every day of the term, the "Kommersant" newspaper writes.
The edition notes that the court has found it unnecessary to hear the victims - the relatives of the perished passengers, and their advocates. Finally, the judge has recognized four defendants guilty of "criminal negligence" and murder by inadvertency: three persons were sentenced to one year of imprisonment each with a delay of enforcement, and one should pay a fine at a rate of 13,500 Swiss francs (11,200 US dollars). The remaining four defendants were acquitted.
According to Urs Zaal, advocate of the Boden Lake victims' relatives, under the Swiss legislation the public prosecutor could not request a more severe punishment, the "Moskovskiy Komsomolets" newspaper informs.
Meanwhile, the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" newspaper quotes Vladimir Savchuk, a resident of the city of Ufa who lost his whole family in the air crash: "For the death of 71 persons, it's just a funny punishment! This process was protracted for 5 years. During this time, the law was changed in Switzerland - earlier, the SkyGuide employees would have received two and a half years of prison for a similar crime."
Yuri Kaloev, brother of Vitaly Kaloev, convicted for murdering Peter Nielsen, an air traffic controller of the company, has expressed his bewilderment with the fact that the director of the air traffic control company, "whose guilt is obvious," escaped any punishment, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.
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