Sergei Virolaynen, a St.Petersburg businessman, who was sentenced in Russia to one-year-jail term for shooting a female RT television journalist in 2010, returned to the country on Thursday after almost two years hiding abroad, St.Petersburg news portal Fontanka reported.
Virolaynen came to St.Petersburg on Thursday after almost two years in Switzerland, Cape Verde and Mexico where he had been spotted by Russian tourists, according to the Fontanka.
The portal reported that the man was detained by police at the airport and he will start serving his one-year imprisonment at the colony in Privolzhsky district in the Leningrad region on Saturday.
In an interview with RIA Novosti on Wednesday, Virolaynen said that he decided to return to Russia after his passport had been stolen in Mexico, where had been living for several months.
The shooter, a nephew of the former St.Petersburg vice-governor Oleg Virolaynen, shot RT journalist Natalya Arkhiptseva in Moscow's Prado Cafe with a rubber bullet in October 2010. Arkhiptseva said he opened fire after she attempted to respond his harassing comments.
During the investigation, Virolaynen stayed in St. Petersburg on a pledge not to leave the city. However, after the court passed the sentence he fled abroad. He said that when in Russia he was beaten by unknown people several times and decided to go for medical treatment abroad.
