The lawyer for a stowaway who snuck onto a flight from JFK Airport to Paris said Thursday that the woman’s crime was no more serious than “theft of service or jumping a turnstile” — and that his client claims she was poisoned after landing in Paris.
Svetlana Dali, 57, blended in with another plane’s flight crew to slip onto the international Delta flight on Nov. 26, the feds allege.
Dali wore a black puffer jacket with a gold zipper at her arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court, scowling at collected media in the gallery and repeatedly whispering to her lawyer, Michael Schneider, of the Federal Defenders.
“The charge in this case, being a stowaway, is a relatively minor charge. I’d liken it to a theft of service or jumping a turnstile,” Schneider told Magistrate Judge Robert Levy Thursday. He explained that, at one point, Dali went through a metal detector with her backpack before boarding.
“I will note for the benefit of the press, she did pass through security . . . so there doesn’t appear to be any risk that she smuggled anything onto the plane,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Theodora said prosecutors were more concerned that she was a flight risk.
At Theodora’s request, Levy ordered Dali held overnight at MDC Brooklyn until Friday so they can verify her residence.
Schneider said Dali believes she ingested poison shortly after arriving in France. She was transferred to the notorious MDC Brooklyn federal jail Wednesday.
“She described her time there as torture,” her lawyer said, adding that Dali described her jail cell as cold, and that she vomited there. “She believes if she stays overnight at the MDC again her life will be in danger.”
He added, “My client reminded me that she also lost consciousness at the MDC. She requested medical attention and none was given.”
Dali also requested through Schneider that she wanted a blood test using a mass spectrometer, “to see what, if any, poison that she’s ingested.”
“I’m not sure that’s in the MDC’s commissary,” Levy replied.
Dali first tried to bluff her way past a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at JFK Terminal 4 on Nov. 26 — the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and one of the heaviest travel days of the year — but was turned away when she couldn’t present a boarding pass, according to a criminal complaint.
Undeterred, Dali got into a special line for airline employees, mixing in with a large Air Europa flight crew, the complaint alleges.
She used that cover to get back into line, and was screened by TSA alongside passengers with tickets, the feds allege.

From there, she walked to Gate B38 and boarded Delta Flight 264 while the airline’s agents were distracted helping other passengers, the feds say.
After takeoff, Dali tried to avoid detection by moving between an empty seat and one of the bathrooms at the back of the plane, sources told the Daily News. But halfway through the trip, a flight attendant noticed she was spending so much time in the bathroom and asked to see her boarding pass, the sources said. She was then taken into custody.
Delta employees notified French law enforcement, who met the plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport, according to the complaint.

Dali admitted to authorities that she had stowed away and looked for opportunities to elude TSA officials and Delta agents when she knew they would ask for her pass.
Once under arrest in Paris, Dali asked for asylum, but was denied on Thanksgiving Day. Dali, who holds a Russian passport, requested asylum in France a few years earlier but was denied, Paris officials told CNN.
She was supposed to return to the U.S. on Nov. 30 after being taken into custody in France, CNN reported, but she became unruly and started screaming, causing her return trip to be rescheduled.
Dali, who is described as a permanent U.S. resident, faces a federal stowaway charge.
Her lawyer said in court that he was trying to verify her residence in Pennsylvania.
Originally Published: