MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - The Moscow Region Court has passed a 3.5-year sentence on Saratov businessman Sergei Kabalov on the counts of an attempt to hijack a plane flying from Moscow to Hurghada in January 2013.
Kabalov was found guilty of causing light physical damage and attempting to hijack a plane, an Interfax correspondent reports.
On Monday prosecutors demanded a sentence of 8.5 years and said Kabalov could be reformed only in a high security penitentiary. A jury passed a guilty verdict earlier.
The businessman was accused of causing premeditated physical damage and hooliganism and attempting to hijack an airline with violent actions dangerous for life and health.
According to detectives, drunken Kabalov battered a steward and used bad language onboard a Kogalymavia Moscow- Hurghada flight on January 11, 2013.
A criminal case was opened and Kabalov was charged in absentia. Later on a court upheld detectives' request for the arrest of Kabalov in absentia. He was put on the international most wanted list and detained in the Grodno region of Belarus on March 7.
The incident onboard the Moscow-Hurghada flight caught public attention after the a video of the incident was posted online and later on shown by television news programs.