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| Verdict expected in trial of Ukrainian pilot | Verdict expected in trial of Ukrainian pilot |
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| DONETSK, Russia — A judge in a border Russian town is expected to deliver a verdict in the case of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, charged with complicity to murder in the deaths of two Russian journalists in warring eastern Ukraine. | |
| The judge in Savchenko’s trial is expected to begin reading the verdict on Monday but the sentencing is likely to be announced on Tuesday. However, the judge’s opening comments should include a statement of whether the court found the prosecution’s case valid — in effect a verdict. | |
| The Savchenko case has attracted strong criticism from the West and is an open wound for Ukraine, which says she was captured by Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine and turned over to Russia, and therefore should be treated as a prisoner of war. | |
| Although a military pilot, Savchenko was fighting in a Ukrainian volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels when was captured by the separatists in July 2014 before she surfaced in Russia. Moscow insists she escaped from the rebels and was captured after crossing the border by herself. | |
| A spokesman for the Ukrainian president said on Monday that a group of Ukrainian officials was traveling to the border town of Donetsk where Savchenko is on trial was stopped by Russian border guards and detained for three hours. One of the officials, presidential envoy for peace settlement in eastern Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko, was refused entry and barred from visiting Russia for five years, the spokesman said. | |
| Russia charges that Savchenko was a forward observer who called in the coordinates for shelling that killed two Russian journalists and several civilians. Savchenko denies the charges. Mid-way into the trial the judge turned down her lawyers’ plea to ask the cell-phone company to trace her calls on the day of the mortar attack that should prove that she was a few kilometers (miles) away from there. | |
| The Ukrainian government has protested against Savchenko’s arrest, saying she should be treated as a prisoner of war and released under the current truce for eastern Ukraine. Prosecutors asked the court to sentence her to 23 years in prison. | The Ukrainian government has protested against Savchenko’s arrest, saying she should be treated as a prisoner of war and released under the current truce for eastern Ukraine. Prosecutors asked the court to sentence her to 23 years in prison. |
| The European Union and U.S. President Barack Obama have called for Savchenko’s immediate release, but Russian officials had dismissed such calls as attempts to interfere with the country’s internal affairs. Speculation persists that Moscow could agree to exchange her for two Russians captured in eastern Ukraine and alleged to be active-duty soldiers despite Russia’s persistent denial that it has sent troops or equipment to bolster the rebels. | |
| Savchenko, who often wears Ukrainian costume in the courtroom, has been openly contemptuous of the judge and prosecutors, denouncing them as “idiots” and raising her middle finger in defiance. She went on an 83-day hunger strike while in detention, then began another this month when the court delayed the reading of the verdict. | |
| Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |