Lawyer for Ukrainian pilot Savchenko says she has gone on hunger strike
MOSCOW. Dec 15 (Interfax) - Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is charged in Russia with abetting the killing of Russia journalists, has gone on hunger strike, her lawyers said.
"My client has gone on hunger strike. She was denied a meeting with an ear-nose-threat doctor, and that was the reason for the hunger strike," Mark Feygin, a lawyer for Savchenko, told Interfax on Monday.
Feygin said Savchenko had gone on hunger strike on Monday. "One of our complaints was considered in court today. Nadezhda announced her decision via a video conference, and the court and the investigators now know about it," the lawyer said.
According to the Russian investigators, Savchenko, a 33-year-old pilot, was fighting with the Aidar volunteer battalion in eastern Ukraine when she was captured by paramilitary units in June near the town of Shchastya, a suburb of Luhansk. It was said on July 8 that she was being held at the Voronezh pre-trial detention facility in Russia.
The Russian Investigative Committee claimed earlier that Savchenko had crossed the border without documents under the guise of a refugee and was detained later for identification, after which it turned out that she was suspected of playing some role in the killing of Russian TV journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin near Luhansk.
On July 9, Russia indicted her for complicity in murder.
Ukraine insists that all prisoners held in custody in Russia, including Savchenko, are to be released under the provision of the Minsk protocol dealing with the release of hostages.
Savchenko was elected as a Verkhovna Rada deputy representing the Batkivshchyna party on October 26.
On October 27, the Moscow Basmanny Court extended Savchenko's detention until the end of the investigation (February 13, 2015).
On December 12, Feygin told Interfax Savchenko had asked the administration of the detention facility to see an ear-nose-threat doctor, saying she is afraid she may go deaf.