A Kazakh diplomat who tried to hijack an Italian plane was cleared of criminal charges after being ruled mentally ill, his former boss said on Wednesday.
In late April, Valery Tolmachev, a member of Kazakhstan's permanent mission to UNESCO, tried to hijack an Alitalia plane on a flight from Paris to Rome. He threatened to cut a flight attendant's throat with a penknife and demanded that the plane be diverted to Libya. The crew managed to restrain him.
Tolmachev was detained by Italian police when the plane landed in Rome. On April 25, he was charged with abduction and a hijacking attempt.
Tolmachev was later diagnosed as being mentally unfit to face charges and will be transferred from a prison psychiatric ward in Napoli to a public hospital in Rome on Wednesday.
"The court has already ruled to clear him of the charges and all he has to do is to complete his course of treatment. His treatment in a public hospital at the cost of the Italian government will be completed in three months. Then he will return to Almaty and continue his therapy there," Kazakhstan's permanent envoy to UNESCO, Olzhas Suleimanov, said.
