A woman who stowed away aboard a flight from New York to Paris was released on bond Friday.
Svetlana Dali, who is Russian and holds permanent U.S. residency, made her first appearance in court after being sent back to the U.S. on Thursday, where she testified that she had been abused.
She spoke with the help of an interpreter to her lawyer, who claims that Dali says she requested asylum in France. She also claims that she was poisoned when she arrived in the country.
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Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Transportation Security Administration says the 57-year-old woman snuck through a security checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Dali initially tried to pass a TSA checkpoint without a boarding pass, where she was denied entry by an administration official.
She then entered a lane reserved for airline flight crews and bypassed stations where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked. She was able to board a Delta Air Lines flight without a ticket.
According to the criminal complaint against her, no airline agents stopped her or asked for a boarding pass when she boarded.
Dali reportedly hid in a bathroom on the plane for most of the flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. When she returned to the U.S., she admitted stowing away in an interview with an FBI agent.
If convicted, Dali faces up to five years in prison.
