KALOEV, SUSPECTED OF MURDERING SKYGUARD AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER, GOES TO MENTAL CLINIC

GENEVA, MARCH 2. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT YEKATERINA ANDRIANOVA/ -- Russian national Vitali Kaloev, suspected killer of an air traffic controller of the Swiss SkyGuard company, has been put into a mental hospital, the Zurich prosecutor's office has said on Tuesday.

According to district prosecutor Pascal Gossner, Kaloev has been put into a Zurich asylum for the high risk of suicide. The Kaloev psychiatric examination was held on February 27.

It is not yet known how long Kaloev will be kept there.

He is suspected of killing the SkyGuard ATC officer who was on duty when a Russian Tu-154 jetliner had a crash above the Bodensee. The dispatcher was killed last Tuesday in his house in Kloten near Zurich.

In that air crash Kaloev lost his entire family - the wife, daughter and son. He was arrested next day after the murder in a Kloten hotel. Kaloev denies the guilt.

In July 2002 a Tu-154 of the Bashkir Airlines and a cargo plane Boeing-747 had a collision in the air above Germany. The crash killed 69 passengers, mostly children, of the Tu-154 and two pilots of the Boeing transport.

According to one version, the fault for the tragedy lies with the killed SkyGuard ATC officer, in whose responsibility zone the catastrophe happened.