The legal team representing Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko has asked the court to send her case back to the Prosecutor's Office, Savchenko's lawyer Mark Feigin has said.

"The defense team's first petition requests the return of the case to the prosecutor (Article 237 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure)," Feigin wrote on his Twitter account.

This article allows "judges, acting at the side's request or on their own initiative, to send a criminal case back to the prosecutor in order to remove any obstacles for its consideration by a court."