Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko found guilty over journalist killings
A Russian court has found Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko guilty of murder, according to Russian news agencies, as a controversial trial in the south of the country drew to a close. One of the panel of three judges began reading the verdict in the case, which has caused an international outcry, on Monday morning. The full reading was expected to take two days, with sentencing likely on Tuesday. Summing up the prosecution arguments, the judge said Savchenko “committed the premeditated murder as part of a group of people from the motives of hatred and enmity”. She was motivated by hatred of “Russian-speaking people in general”, he added, though it was not immediately clear if this was merely a summing up of the prosecution case or the judge’s own conclusions. However, the judge said the witnesses and evidence in the case supported a guilty verdict, RIA Novosti reported. The trial has been running since last September. Savchenko went on an 83-day hunger strike earlier in the trial and was again refusing food in protest at delays in the reading of the verdict. During her final statement to the court, a defiant Savchenko railed against the Russian justice and political system and raised her middle finger at the judge. Prosecutors asked for a 23-year jail sentence for Savchenko. The team of defence lawyers said they had little hope for a not-guilty verdict in Russia’s politicised justice system but were hoping that after sentencing Savchenko could be made part of an exchange deal between Russia and Ukraine.
