Russian court finds Nadiya Savchenko guilty
A Russian court has found Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko guilty of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists.
The judge in the Russian town of Donetsk said Savchenko had been driven by "political hatred".
The ruling will not be official until the judge finishes reading it, but Russian media have stated that his wording "strongly indicates" that the judge will issue a guilty verdict.
One of her lawyers stated earlier there was "no doubt" that the court in southern Russia would sentence her to a "few dozen years".
"A propaganda machine is at work here, absent of justice and freedom," said lawyer Mark Feigin on Twitter.
Nadiya Savchenko had been charged with the murder of two Russian journalists. It is widely believed that Savchenko was in fact captured by Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) separatists in eastern Ukraine and was illegally transported to Russia, where the case was fabricated against her.
Savchenko was elected to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada in absentia in October of 2014, and became an official delegate of the PACE several months later.
On March 2nd, the prosecutor’s office requested that she be sentenced to 23 years in a penal colony plus a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,400).
Savchenko declared a dry hunger strike on March 3rd after the Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region announced that she would not be given a chance to make her final closing statement during a court hearing.
Rallies in support of her immediate release have taken place in Ukraine, Russia and other countries around the World, and many western leaders consider the case to be little more than a show trial.