A rally in Vladikavkaz in support of Vitaly Kaloev, charged with murder of a Skyguide air traffic control employee.
Photo: Zaur Farniyev
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Skyguide Ready to Pay Again
The Swiss air navigation services provider Skyguide has announced that it is prepared to pay compensation to the families of 30 people who died in an air collision over Boden Lake in 2002. On July 1 of that year, a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 collided with a Boeing freight plane belonging to DHL, resulting in the deaths of 71 people. Skyguide lawyer Alexander von Ziegler said that 123 court cases initiated by the victims were concluded last week.
Skyguide earlier paid compensation of about $150,000 per victim to 41 relatives of the victims. The relatives of 30 victims turned down the settlement, however, and filed appeals in 2005. Von Ziegler declined to reveal the sum Skyguide is willing to pay the remaining relatives of the victims, saying only that Skyguide was “generous.” General director of Skyguide Alain Rossier resigned after learning of the end of the cases, probably to evade responsibility that falls on him under Swiss law. If the new settlement being offered by Skyguide still does not satisfy the plaintiffs, they have until the end of the year to appeal it.
One of the plaintiffs, Evgeny Nelyubin, told Kommersant that none of the plaintiffs would accept a cash settlement, no matter what sum was offered, saying that it was “a matter of principle.” Nelyubin pointed out that, after waiting years for the conclusions of an expert commission, there was no sense in accepting a cash payment when the case was “approaching its resolution”: the head of Skyguide has resigned and eight employees of the company whop are accused of involvement in the tragedy are soon to be arraigned before a Swiss court. “We are achieving a triumph of justice, and that's why we refused the Skyguide settlement,” he said, referring to the first compensation offer.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 19, 2006
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