Nadia Savchenko's custodial term extended for six months
The Donetsk City Court in Russia's southern Rostov region has ruled in favor of prosecutors' petition and has agreed to prolong the custodial term of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, charged in Russia over the murder of Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, for six months.
The trial was supposed to begin in early August, but the defendant's legal team submitted a request to change the place of her trial. The Rostov Regional Court rejected this request on August 21, disagreeing with the defense team's arguments that Savchenko should be tried in Moscow. The case files were then returned to Donetsk, Rostov region.
Since July 2014, Savchenko has been in custody in Russia on charges of being an accomplice in the murder of journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in the Luhansk region. She pleads not guilty. Ukraine demands her release.
On July 13, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported that it had endorsed an indictment against Savchenko and forwarded the criminal case to the Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region.
On July 25, Savchenko was taken to Pre-Trial Detention Facility No. 3 in Novocherkassk, Rostov region.