But while justice was served in Switzerland, the verdict sparked a primal outcry in the rugged Caucasus mountains of south Russia where an ancient, unwritten code of blood vengeance is still the highest law in the land and where the Swiss ruling was seen as miscarriage of natural justice.
Kaloyev lost his wife and two children in a mid-air jetliner collision over southern Germany, an accident for which the Swiss air traffic control agency has admitted responsibility. For many in the Caucasus, it was not just normal but mandatory that he personally avenge the deaths.
"The actions of Vitaly Kaloyev are in line with the tradition of blood vengeance" in the Caucasus, Genry Kusov, a North Ossetia university professor specialising in the ethnic history of the region, said after the Swiss court's sentencing of Kaloyev Wednesday to eight years in prison.
"And it is precisely this tradition among the mountain people that has for many centuries been the main factor in restraining ethnic tensions. Before entering a conflict, people think: 'What might the consequences be? Will there be a vendetta against my family?'
"And blood vengeance has no statute of limitations," Kusov said.
Folk tales from the Caucasus, and literature over the past three centuries about the region, is replete with tales of wronged heros who bring glory to themselves and honour to their peoples by obtaining revenge, usually by thrusting a knife into the innards of their enemy. A Swiss court last Wednesday jailed Kaloyev for eight years after finding him guilty of stabbing to death Danish air traffic controller Pieter Nielsen, who was on duty when the crash occurred. German investigators concluded Nielsen had failed to notice the planes' collision course on time.
Kaloyev is thought to have visited Nielsen, a 36 year-old Dane and father of two young children, at his home in Zurich to try to show him photographs of his family and demand an apology. Investigators believe he stabbed Nielsen after the latter pushed him away.
Russia has said it plans to petition Swiss authorities to allow Kaloyev to serve his sentence in Russia, and in the volatile North Caucasus region sympathy for the jailed Russian and other members of his family living in North Ossetia is still running high.
"I want our leaders to know that there are a lot of Kaloyevs among us," warned Ella Kesayeva, a leader of the Beslan Mothers Committee, the group demanding President Vladimir Putin hold officials accountable for the Beslan school hostage massacre last year.
"Let them think twice before telling us that no one among the authorities bears any share of responsibility for the deaths of our children," Kesayeva told AFP.
Her comments reflect the depth of passion and the seriousness of purpose that bind the peoples of the Caucasus to the principle of blood vengeance, an "eye-for-an-eye" principle that many in the West reject as primitive but which nonetheless remains the bedrock rule of justice in this region.
"Kaloyev became the image of the hero of lore. He became the symbol of the nation," Kusov explained, noting that efforts by local politicians to associate themselves with Kaloyev have paid off immediately and handsomely in higher popularity ratings.
"Supporting a hero, standing beside him, inevitably wins popularity among Ossetians," Alan Diambekov, a local political analyst, said.
To demonstrate that support, the leader of the North Ossetia province, Teimuraz Mamsurov, flew to Zurich to meet with Kaloyev. And the deputy speaker of the local parliament organised a rally in his support in Vladikavkaz.