PACE President urges Russia to release Savchenko
PACE President Pedro Agramunt urged Russia to release Ukrainian pilot and member of the Assembly, Nadiya Savchenko, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
"At the beginning of the April session of PACE, I have to reiterate our serious concerns about the situation of our member Nadezhda Savchenko, who remains in custody in the Russian Federation,” Agramunt stated
According to him, the release Savchenko is especially important in light of the reports of her ongoing hunger strike and the deterioration of her health.
The PACE President urged the Russian authorities to take the necessary measures to address this issue, "including in the context of the possible exchange of prisoners with the Ukrainian authorities."
Last month, a Russian court found Savchenko guilty of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists and sentenced her to 22 years in prison.
The judge in the Russian town of Donetsk said Savchenko had been driven by "political hatred".
"A propaganda machine is at work here, absent of justice and freedom," Savchenko’s lawyer wrote on Twitter.
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.
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.