The hijackers were five Turkish nationals of Caucasian origin, Muhammed Emin Tokcan (b. 1969 in Gebze), Tuncer Özcan (b. 1968 in Düzce), Sedat Temiz, Erdinç Tekir (b. 1966 in Istanbul), Ertan Coşkun (b. 1960 in Zonguldak), Ceyhan Mollamehmetoğlu, an ethnic Abkhaz from Abkhazia, Khamzat Gitsba (b. 1971), and two Chechens, Ramazan Zubareyev (b. 1963) and Viskhan Abdurrahmanov (b. 1967).
After being released from prison, Khamzat Gitsba returned to Abkhazia and became a member of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Abkhazia and an informal leader of Muslims in Gudauta.
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Khamzat "Rocky" Gitsba was a participant in the 1996 hijacking of the MV Avrazya who was shot dead in 2007 in Gudauta.