14:50, 24 August 2007

Advocates: delay of Kaloev's release violates his rights

The Swiss advocates of Vitaly Kaloev, who is serving his term for murdering Peter Nielsen, an air traffic controller of the SkyGuide Swiss Company, believe that the decision of the Federal Court of Switzerland to delay enforcement of the decision of the Zurich Canton Court about early release of their client is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Radio Liberty informs that on August 23 the advocates disseminated a statement running as follows: "As far as we know, it is the first case in the history of Switzerland, when the process of checking the correctness of the punishment term results in just a shelving of the motion. This decision is an obvious violation of the European Convention on Human Rights."

The correspondent of the Radio Liberty remarks that positive characteristics of prisoners are the decisive arguments for the Swiss courts, which consider early release cases. However, in Vitaly Kaloev's story the main argument was the public prosecutor's conviction that Kaloev had willingly murdered Peter Nielsen.