Witness in Savchenko case says militia released her after six days of captivity
DONETSK (Rostov region). Oct 19 (Interfax) - The questioning of the witnesses for the prosecution continued in the Donetsk City Court on Monday in the trial of the case involving Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who is charged with involvement in the killing of Russian journalists.
The first person to be questioned was militiaman Sergei Moiseyev, who said Savchenko had been released by militia six days after being taken captive.
"On June 17 [2014], I took Savchenko to the battalion after the questioning. The next time I saw her was six days later, on June 23. I came to the battalion and I was approached by Plotnitsky, the commander of the battalion. He told me to take her far away and release her," Moiseyev said.
Moiseyev said he had taken Savchenko to the area of the village of Severny, were he released her.
The witness also said he was present during Savchenko's search on June 17 after she was captured. "I was approached by troops who said intelligence had captured a sniper. Savchenko said she was not a sniper, but a fire navigator and she was in the bushes. We searched her. She had a backpack, which contained a binocular, two phones, a portable radio set and a map. I was told a gun had been taken from her," Moiseyev said.
Savchenko has been held in custody in Russia since July 2014.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, she is charged with murder and abetting murder.
According to the inquiry, Savchenko, an officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was at an Aidar battalion base near the village of Metalist in the Slavianoserbsk district in the Luhansk region on June 17, 2014. There she was conducting secret surveillance and adjusting artillery fire against an LPR militia checkpoint with civilians inside, including three Russian VGTRK correspondents. Two of them were killed in the attack.
According to the investigators, Savchenko secretly crossed the Russian border outside the checkpoint Donetsk-Severny in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, thus breaching the regulations governing entry in Russia, no later than June 23.
On July 13, 2015, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported that the indictment had been approved and the criminal case against Savchenko had been sent to the Donetsk City Court of the Rostov region. On July 25, she was taken to a detention facility in Novocherkassk, Rostov region. According to the city judge's aide, Savchenko will be taken from the Novocherkassk detention facility to the court and back for the time being. There is some 100 km from Novocherkassk to Donetsk.
Lawyers earlier said they have irrefutable evidence of Savchenko's involvement in the crimes she is charged with. Savchenko denies her guilt, saying she was abducted by LPR militia on the territory of Ukraine and taken to Russia.
The Ukrainian administration has said more than once that Savchenko is innocent. Kyiv regards Savchenko as a POW and demands her immediate release.
Savchenko headed the Batkivschyna party list at an early election to the Verkhovna Rada in fall 2014. She was elected to the Verkhovna Rada. That gave Ukraine reasons to raise the question of Savchenko's release in various international sites, including the EU, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, etc.