17:18, 13 March 2016

Ukrainian physicians not allowed to examine Nadezhda Savchenko, her advocate reports

Ukrainian physicians were not able to visit Nadezhda Savchenko, accused of involvement in the murder of two journalists not far from Lugansk, and they returned to Ukraine. This was reported by advocate Nikolai Polozov.

Savchenko's case is heard at the Donetsk City Court of the Rostov Region of Russia since September 22, 2015. The investigators believe that she corrected the artillery fire, and with the help thereof Ukrainian militaries attacked the settlement of Metallist in Donbas on June 17, 2014, and killed two journalists of the VGTRK (All-Russian TV and Radio Company).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 3, Nadezhda Savchenko declared a dry hunger strike in protest against the postponement of her final speech at trial to March 9. On March 8, Irina Geraschenko, the Kiev spokesperson in the humanitarian subgroup of the contact group on Donbass, reported that physicians from Kiev were given nod to examine Nadezhda Savchenko in SIZO (pre-trial prison).

"Finally, the Ukrainian physicians were not allowed to visit Nadezhda Savchenko. They had to leave the Russian Federation," reports today Nikolai Polozov, an advocate of Nadezhda Savchenko, on his page in Twitter.

The physicians "were hinted that they would not be allowed to visit Nadezhda Savchenko, and they left Russia." Nadezhda Savchenko does not admit Russian physicians, and she faces complications while suspending her dry hunger strike, the RIA "Novosti" quotes Nikolai Polozov as reporting.

Earlier, Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, has stated that the Russian side was willing to allow the examination of Nadezhda Savchenko by Ukrainian physicians, but "the defendant's insulting remarks against the court changed the situation."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.