N. Ossetia head Mamsurov to look into Kaloyev's detention in Munich
ROSTOV-ON-DON. June 30 (Interfax) - North Ossetia head Taimuraz Mamsurov is determined to look into circumstances of Vitaly Kaloyev's detention at the Munich airport.
"I will try to look into this fact in the near future. It is necessary to find out reasons for Vitaly Kaloyev's detention. As far as I know, there are no grounds for this," Mamsurov told Interfax on Saturday.
It was reported earlier that Kaloyev, whose wife and two children were killed in the crash of a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet and a DHL Boeing 757 over Lake Constance (Bodensee) on July 2, 2002, was detained at the Munich airport upon his arrival there on Saturday to take part in a mourning ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
Kaloyev himself told Interfax by phone from Munich that he had been invited by the Ueberlingen authorities to take part in the mourning ceremony and was granted a Schengen visa.
Kaloyev said he is currently at a police station, where he was told that his visa was issued to him by mistake and that the Swiss delegation objected to his participation in the ceremony.
An investigation into the 2002 crash revealed that the Swiss-based air traffic control firm Skyguide was responsible for the disaster known as the Ueberlingen Mid-Air Collision, which killed 71 people, including 52 children.
Kaloyev held Skyguide controller Peter Nielsen, a Danish citizen, responsible for the loss of his family and stabbed him to death at his Kloten home near Zurich on February 25, 2004. Kaloyev was tried and convicted by a Swiss court to 8 years in prison in 2005 but was granted parole on November 8, 2007.
Since January 2008, Kaloyev has served as a deputy architecture and construction minister of North Ossetia.
The Swiss authorities have reportedly claimed 150,000 Swiss francs from Kaloyev for his stay in prison. Kaloyev himself said he was not going to pay.
"Even if I had this money, I would donate it to orphanages or elsewhere, but not to Switzerland," he said.
Some of Kaloyev's friends suggested that he might have been invited to participate in the mourning ceremony in order to claim the money for his stay in prison.
