Ukrainian pilot Savchenko not at Moscow Serbsky Institute - administration
MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who was ordered by a court to undergo a psychological and psychiatric examination as part of an inquiry into the killing of Russian journalists in Ukraine, is not at Moscow's Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry.
"This person has not been our patient up until now," the Institute's Deputy Director Konstantin Shaklein told journalists.
It was reported earlier that Savchenko, who is charged with being involved in the killing of Russian journalists in Ukraine, was moved to Moscow to undergo a psychiatric examination.
Savchenko's custody term has been extended until October 30.
On October 13, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow will continue hearing the appeal from Savchenko's defense lawyers against the court order for psychiatric examination. By law, no investigative procedures can be carried out before the court rules on the appeal.
According to Russian investigators, the 31-year-old navigator was fighting with the Aidar volunteer battalion in eastern Ukraine when she was captured by illegal armed 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 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.
For its part, Ukraine has insisted that all Ukrainian captives held in custody in Russia, including Savchenko, should be released under the Minsk protocol clause requiring the release of all hostages.
Savchenko tops the party ticket of the Ukrainian Batkivshchyna Party led by ex-prime minister Yulia Timoshenko in the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine due on October 26.
