Vitaly Kaloyev

Background

Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev was born in 1956 in Vladikavkaz. He was an architect and deputy minister of housing from North Ossetia, Russia. He became known for the 2004 murder of Peter Nielsen in the Swiss town of Kloten.

Kaloyev’s family died aboard Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, which collided with another aircraft over Germany in 2002. The collision happened over Germany in the airspace that was responsible for by Peter Nielsen, the only air traffic controller on duty when the collision occurred. In the following inquest, Nielsen was freed from any responsibility and retired from further air traffic work afterward.

After Kaloyev held Nielsen responsible, he became a popular hero in his home Caucasus republic following the murder. After serving prison time, Kaloyev was released from prison in November 2007 and shortly after was appointed deputy minister of construction of North Ossetia–Alania.

The offence

Peter Nielsen was stabbed to death in front of his home in Kloten, near Zürich, on 24 February 2004. Police arrested an Ossetian man, Vitaly Kaloyev, within a few days.

Kaloyev expected to meet his wife, Svetlana Kaloyeva (Светлана Калоева), and his two children, 10-year old Konstantin Kaloyev (Константин Калоев) and 4-year-old Diana Kaloyeva (Диана Калоева), who were not a part of the Bashkirian student group. The family of Kaloyev died on Flight 2937.

Investigators described the killing as involving a short argument on Nielsen’s doorstep, after which Kaloyev stabbed him several times. Nielsen died of his injuries a few minutes later in the presence of his wife and three children. Investigators found Kaloyev in his hotel room at a Kloten Welcome Inn, apparently in shock.

A description of the suspect included that he was a burly, unshaven, dark-haired man in his late 40s or early 50s who appeared to come from eastern Europe or Russia.

The murder weapon was described as a 22cm jackknife with a 14cm blade thrown away near the scene. Police said the chief suspect had “behaved strangely” during the first anniversary of the crash last summer in the German town of Überlingen. Investigators said he had allegedly threatened officials from Skyguide, described Nielsen as “scum”, and denied involvement in the killing.

Investigation

Arrest

Kaloyev was arrested within a few days of the 24 February 2004 murder.

Investigators evaluated Kaloyev in a mental hospital to determine if he was fit to stand trial. Kaloyev answered questions from the judge while in that context.

Kaloyev said: “I have been living on the cemetery for almost two years, sitting behind their graves.”

Kaloyev also said that the plane crash above Lake Constance had ended his life, and that his children were the youngest on board Flight 2937 so there was no need for him to identify the bodies.

Kaloyev presented a document received from a law firm in Hamburg dated 11 November 2003. It was described as an amicable agreement in which Skyguide offered him 60,000 Swiss francs for the death of his wife and 50,000 francs for the death of each of his two children. In return, Skyguide asked Kaloyev to decline any claims to the company.

Kaloyev said the document infuriated him and that he decided to meet the company director Alan Rossier and Nielsen in person. He said: “Apparently he did not expect that he would have to answer for the results of his work,” and that: “He murmured something to me. Then I showed him some pictures of my children and said: 'They were my children. What would you feel if you saw your children in coffins?' I was infuriated about Skyguide's initiative to haggle over my dead children.”

Kaloyev said he wanted Nielsen to apologize to him for the death of his family. He said: “He hit me on the hand, when I was holding the envelope with the photographs of my children. I only remember that I had a very disturbing feeling, as if the bodies of my children were turning over in their graves,” and added that he did not remember what he did afterwards.

Trial

Kaloyev was sentenced after 710 days on remand.

Sentencing

On 26 October 2005, Kaloyev was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Two years after the crash, his grief and family circumstances were described as continuing to affect him after his family’s deaths.

Appeals

In 2007, he was paroled by the court, but the prosecution appealed the decision. On 23 August 2007, the court accepted the appeal, so that Kaloyev remained in prison. The Swiss Federal Tribunal rejected an appeal by Zurich prosecutors against the reduction of Vitaly Kaloyev’s sentence to five-and-a-quarter years from eight years.

Two of the court’s five judges dissented from the majority opinion, calling the current sentence against the 51-year-old too mild.

Outcome

On 8 November 2007, Kaloyev was released from prison because his mental condition was not sufficiently considered in the initial sentence. The Swiss Federal Tribunal ordered the release because he had served more than two-thirds of his sentence with good behavior.

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

Aftermath

After release, Kaloyev’s sister Zoya said that relatives would gather in Vladikavkaz to welcome him back home. She said: “We ... all prayed yesterday for the end of Vitaly's suffering in prison.” She added: “We always believed that sooner or later justice would prevail and Vitaly would be freed.”

North Ossetia’s top official, Taymuraz Mamsurov, welcomed the ruling. He said everyone in the region “has been closely watching their countryman's fate,” and that they were looking forward to Kaloyev’s return.

After the release, Kaloyev was described as planning to return home to North Ossetia.

Timeline

• 24 February 2004 — Peter Nielsen was stabbed to death in front of his home in Kloten, near Zürich; police arrested Vitaly Kaloyev within a few days.
• 26 October 2005 — Kaloyev was sentenced to eight years in federal prison after 710 days on remand.
• 23 August 2007 — A court accepted the prosecution appeal, so Kaloyev remained in prison.
• 8 November 2007 — Kaloyev was released from prison because his mental condition was not sufficiently considered in the initial sentence.
• 2007 — Kaloyev was paroled by the court, but the prosecution appealed the decision.

Other details

Victims and the crash

Peter Nielsen was the only person on duty when a Bashkirian Airlines plane and a DHL cargo jet collided on 1 July 2002 in airspace over southern Germany. The crash killed 71 people, most of them schoolchildren on a holiday trip to Spain.

Kaloyev’s family died in the disaster: his wife Svetlana, 10-year old son Konstantin, and 4-year old daughter Diana.

Finding the bodies and memorial life

Yuri Kaloyev, the brother of Vitaly Kaloyev, reported that Vitaly suffered a nervous breakdown following the loss of his entire family, especially because he was one of the first relatives to arrive at the crash site.

Vitaly Kaloyev participated in the search for the bodies and located a broken pearl necklace owned by his daughter, Diana. He found her body, described as intact, with trees having broken her fall. His mother and brother fell 36,000 feet; Svetlana’s body landed in a corn field; and Konstantin’s body hit asphalt in front of a Überlingen bus shelter.

Returning to Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia, Kaloyev spent the first year after the accident lingering at the graves of his family and building a shrine to them in his home. At the memorial service for the first anniversary of the tragedy, Kaloyev asked the head of Skyguide about the possibility of meeting the controller responsible for the disaster, but received no response.

Confrontation sequence before the stabbing

Investigators said Kaloyev phoned a Swiss travel company to book him a hotel room close to Zürich airport. He arrived in Zurich entirely legally and checked into the Welcome-Inn hotel in the suburb of Kloten. The hotel was described as a short taxi ride away from where Nielsen lived with his wife and three children.

In the two days before the murder, he was described as doing little to attract attention and being very quiet, mostly in his room. A hotel manager, Simona Huonder, said: “He was very quiet.” She also said: “We hardly saw him during the time he stayed with us. He was on his own the whole time, mostly up in his room.” She added: “He didn't speak very good English. My colleague who checked him in had to give him information slowly.”

At breakfast, Kaloyev ate alone and flicked through brochures offering city tours.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kaloyev left his hotel room—No 316—and set off for Peter Nielsen’s house, described as a half-hour’s walk away. A female neighbour of Nielsen spotted him, asked what he wanted, and he waved a piece of paper with Nielsen’s name on it. The neighbour pointed to the front door, and instead of knocking, Kaloyev sat down in the front garden near a bench.

Nielsen spotted the intruder. Nielsen asked what the intruder wanted. Swiss detectives said Nielsen’s wife called their children back to the inside of the house; when she heard a “kind of scream”, she rushed out and discovered her husband lying in a pool of blood. The couple and the killer were described as having had a brief conversation, but “what they said, however, is unknown.” Police arrived at 6.17pm.

Court and dissent details

The Swiss Federal Tribunal’s decision coincided with a visit by Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey to Moscow. The decision involved the Zurich prosecutors appeal and the reduction of Kaloyev’s sentence from eight years to five-and-a-quarter years.

Additional statements and family remarks

A German press report included Yuri Kaloyev saying: “You could find my brother, even at 2am, at the cemetery crying on their gravestones.” He added: “He suffered. He could not work. He locked himself away.”

Vladimir Savchuck appeared on Russian TV deploring the killing.

Yulia Fedotova, a lawyer representing the families who lost her own daughter Sofia, 15, in the crash, said: “shocked” and that: “We still do not have any official confirmation that the murderer was Kaloyev. Mr Kaloyev's personal trauma, however, was clear to those around him.”

Margarita, wife to Yuri Kaloyev’s brother Yuri, told the Izvestiya newspaper: “Vitali suffered everything alone. And after two years, he was in such a state that I would not be surprised if he would behave irrationally. Anyone can put himself in his place: in a minute to lose all your family.”

Yuri Kaloyev disputed accounts of abnormal behavior at the ceremony, saying: “All this talk and speculation in the newspapers about his abnormal behaviour last year at the ceremony in Switzerland is rubbish. He was fine. What is abnormal is the behaviour of Skyguide who did not sack such an air controller and director as Alan Rossier.”

Kaloyev wrote an internet eulogy for his son Konstantin: “He would have become a good, well-educated person, useful to society, were it not for this tragedy, which I cannot get over. I have no strength.”

Details about Peter Nielsen’s role and remorse

The described crash sequence included that Nielsen expressed remorse at what had happened but in a statement issued after the tragedy pointed out that he was not the only person responsible.

The statement context included that Nielsen was the only person on duty and had wrongly instructed the Bashkirian airlines plane to descend even though its onboard warning equipment told it to climb. The pilot followed Nielsen’s instructions and ploughed into a DHL cargo plane descending in accordance with its own collision-avoiding equipment.

Separate Skyguide proceeding

In September, four Skyguide employees were found guilty of negligent homicide in a separate proceeding examining the events that led to the crash. Three midlevel managers were given one-year suspended prison sentences, while another employee—a project manager—received a suspended fine of 13,500 Swiss francs (US$11,200; €8,250). Four other Skyguide officials were acquitted of wrongdoing in the accident.