Moscow’s Basmanny Court is going to hear today the complaint of Nadia Savchenko’s defense about the prosecution’s refusal to let her attend a PACE session as a delegate to this organization, Mark Feygin, one of the Ukrainians pilot’s defense attorneys, reports in his Twitter. It will be recalled that Savchenko was transferred from the pretrial jail to the city hospital on April 28 due to ill health. The lawyers and Savchenko herself hoped that hospital conditions were better. But they were wrong, and Nadia came back to jail two days later. The lawyers say this “morally cheered her up.” If Savchenko had stayed behind in hospital during the holidays (11 days), no one knows what damage this would have caused to her health, the defense attorneys say. The Ukrainian pilot herself said in a recent interview about her stay in the hospital: “It’s unbearable hell.”
What can we expect from another court session in the case of a Ukrainian woman who is unfoundedly accused of killing Russian journalists in the Donbas in the summer of 2014 and is being illegally held in Russia? The Day discussed this with the Ukrainian pilot’s defense attorney Mark FEYGIN.
“I am skeptical about any rulings of a Russian court about Nadia Savchenko. I do not think she will be released, for this needs a political decision.
“However, this does not mean there are no legitimate grounds for Savchenko to take part in the PACE proceedings. We have and will submit all the documents that prove her status as member of the PACE delegation.
“We will explain to the court that the Savchenko case will be the No.1 item on the agenda of the PACE session in June, as far as restoration of Russia’s right to vote is concerned. If all these arguments prove ineffective, this does not mean at all that there are too few of them.
“The complaint we have filed is about refusal to allow Nadia to take part in the PACE session. The prosecution’s decision to turn down the petition still recognizes her status as PACE delegate. This is progress compared to our first appeal. The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Savchenko is a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe but this status allegedly does not allow her to be released and attend the upcoming PACE session in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe. The PACE, which can only interpret this status and give recommendations to its member states, has already given an explanation. It says that the Council of Europe Charter binds over Russia, as a PACE member state, to release Savchenko. If the court fails to heed these arguments, this will create a big problem for it.”
You have also announced a lot of surprises for Nadia’s birthday on May 11…
“We are not preparing anything very unusual. It is an uncommon situation for Nadia herself to mark her birthday in jail. Many people will send her their greetings and stage protests as a token of solidarity. Everything will be within the limits of the law. We are not going to shoot up fireworks in Matrosskaya Tishina in order not to be run in. Those who think that Savchenko is forgotten and interests nobody, as Russian propaganda, especially social websites, is tying to put it across, are wrong. Savchenko will never be forgotten. The logic is simple: it is better to free her than to go on holding her in. It is obvious that she did not commit what she is being accused of. She did not adjust the fire that killed Russian journalists, nor did she cross the Russian border or do anything else to stand trial at a Russian court.”
