Speaker of North Ossetia's parliament flys to Switzerland to meet with murder suspect

Taimuraz Mamsurov, the speaker of the North Ossetian parliament (North Ossetia is a republic in Russia's Southern federal district), will fly to Switzerland on Monday to meet with Vitaly Kaloyev, the man charged with the murder of a Skyguide air traffic controller.

"The Swiss Embassy in Russia has already issued a visa, and I am leaving Vladikavkaz for Moscow on Sunday in order to fly to Switzerland," Mr. Mamsurov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

According to him, Vitaly's elder brother, Yuri, will join him in Moscow. Mr. Mamsurov said that he and Mr. Kaloyev's Swiss lawyer, who will specify the questions, intend to meet with Mr. Kaloyev.

Mr. Kaloyev is charged with the murder of a Skyguide air traffic controller and has partially pleaded guilty.

The air traffic controller was on duty the night Tu-154, a Russian airplane, crashed over Constance Lake. He was killed at his home in Kloten on February 24.

Mr. Kaloyev lost his entire family - his wife, daughter and son - in the crash. He was arrested at a Kloten hotel on the day after the murder and was then admitted to a psychiatric clinic because he was suicidal.

A Bashkir Airlines Tu-154 and a Boeing-747 cargo plane collided in Germany's air space in July 2002. Sixty-nine people on the Tu-154, most of them children, and the two pilots of the Boeing died in the crash.

It is suspected that the killed air traffic controller was responsible for the crash because it occurred in his zone of responsibility.