18-Year-Old Soviet Hijacker Faces Trial in Sweden
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STOCKHOLM — A Soviet hijacker who tried to kill himself in a Swedish jail rather than return to the Soviet Union will go on trial in Sweden, court officials said Friday.
A Swedish prosecutor has pressed charges against Mikhail Mokretsov, 18, and asked that he be deported after serving a sentence in Sweden, the officials said. The trial will begin Thursday.
The charges were filed a week after Sweden’s Supreme Court rejected Moscow’s request that Mokretsov be extradited, saying he risked “going under” in a Soviet prison.
Mokretsov commandeered a domestic Aeroflot flight to Sweden on July 5. He faces a sentence of 2 to 10 years in a Swedish jail if found guilty, and he could be deported at the end of his sentence, possibly to a country other than the Soviet Union.
In mid-July, Sweden deported Dmitri Semyonov, 17, to the Soviet Union and, earlier this month, sent home Anatoly Mikhailenko, 19, after they hijacked planes to Sweden.
A few hours after Sweden decided to extradite Mikhailenko, Mokretsov slashed his wrists with a broken light bulb.
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