Sweden Won’t Deport Soviet Hijacker

Sweden’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against deporting a young Soviet hijacker to face trial in the Soviet Union.

The court said that Mikhail Mokretsov--who forced a Soviet civilian airliner on a domestic flight from Riga to Murmansk to fly to Sweden on July 5--will face trial in the Scandinavian country rather than the Soviet Union.

Although two other young Soviet hijackers were deported last month, the court said that expulsion of Mokretsov, 18, would be contrary to Swedish law.

A statement by the Supreme Court said it took into consideration a psychiatric evaluation ordered after Mokretsov tried to commit suicide following the deportation of the two other hijackers.

The Swedish government and the Supreme Court deemed in mid-July that Dmitri Semyonov, 17, and Ukrainian Anatoly Mikhailenko, 19, could both be deported for trial in the Soviet Union after they had hijacked aircraft to Sweden.

But, in Thursday’s decision, the Supreme Court said a court psychiatrist had found Mokretsov unfit to serve a sentence in a Soviet prison and that there was a danger that he would attempt suicide again.

If convicted, Mokretsov faces a sentence of between two and 10 years in prison and subsequent expulsion from Sweden.