Teen-Ager Who Flew Into Red Square May Get Public Trial
A West German teen-ager who flew a private plane to Red Square will be put on public trial unless state secrets are involved, a Soviet official said Tuesday.
Gennady I. Gerasimov, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said charges filed against Mathias Rust, 19, have been approved by the state prosecutor’s office and sent to the Soviet Supreme Court.
He confirmed that Rust, detained in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison since the trip, faces up to 10 years in jail on three charges for his May 28 flight across Soviet airspace.
“In principle, the trial will be open, unless it deals with questions not open to discussion,” Gerasimov said in an apparent reference to state secrets.
Rust, a Hamburg area resident, took off in his single-engine Cessna from Helsinki, Finland, flew over Estonia and continued unimpeded through heavily guarded Soviet airspace to the capital.
He was arrested after landing near the Kremlin.
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