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Court to hear airplane hijacking attempt case vs in-flight brawler

MOSCOW, January 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow regional court will debate January 20 the punishment in the criminal case versus in-flight brawler Sergey Kabalov, whom the jury found guilty of an attempt at hijacking an airplane on the Moscow-Hurghada flight, Itar-Tass reported.

During the exchange of arguments the public prosecutor will say about the punishment that he finds fair for the defendant. The lawyer will produce his arguments in favour of a more lenient verdict. The exchange of arguments after the pronouncement of the court verdict was set on January 10, but the court session was delayed over the failure of lawyer Ignat Yavorsky to turn up in the court.

The jury has earlier found Kabalov guilty of voicing threats to hijack the airplane and that only the actions of the crew prevented him from committing the crime. Meanwhile, the jury has found Kabalov deserving leniency on this charge.

On the accusation of insulting the crewmembers and beating them the jury have also voted unanimously for Kabalov’s guilt and found him not deserving leniency on this charge. From the verdict the jury has excluded only a count of the indictment that Kabalov had slapped steward Denis Vafin on the face.

The detectives have found that on January 11, 2013, Kabalov as a passenger of the Moscow-Hurghada flight of the airline Kogalymavia has committed an offence “aimed at the hijacking of the airplane with the use of violence and the threat to use violence dangerous for health and life of several crewmembers and several passengers.”

Kabalov was placed on the international wanted list. On March 7, he was detained in Grodno Region of Belarus and was brought to a detention centre in Moscow two months later. He faces from seven to 12 years in prison.