Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed the so-called "Savchenko's law", which amends the procedure of counting the duration of pre-trial detention when a person is sentenced to imprisonment.

The president signed bill No. 3413, one of the authors of which is Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko (Batkivschyna), on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, reads a report on the official website of the Verkhovna Rada.

According to the bill, when an individual who was held in pre-trial detention is being sentenced to prison, the court will count one day of pre-trial detention as two days of imprisonment.

The explanatory note to the bill says that the current conditions of detention centers are inadequate, cells are often overcrowded and do not meet minimum health standards.

"It is a well-known fact that the conditions of serving punishment in the penal colonies of various security levels are better than the conditions in pre-trial detention facilities where those suspected of committing an offense are kept," the explanatory note to the bill states.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada passed this bill on November 26, 2015. A total of 263 lawmakers voted for it.