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Psychiatric testing of Ukrainian pilot Savchenko may take 3 months — lawyer

The Russian Investigative Committee said on Monday Savchenko has been taken to the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry in Moscow to undergo psychiatric testing

MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The psychiatric evaluation of Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who has been charged with involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine, may take up to three months, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

“The evaluation in hospital may last for one month and may be extended twice, so it’s three months,” lawyer Nikolay Polozov told TASS.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on Monday Savchenko has been taken to the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry in Moscow to undergo psychiatric testing.

The lawyer said he was unable to meet with his client earlier in the day. “The meetings with lawyers are allowed only on Fridays. So we will meet with Savchenko on Friday and for no more than three or four hours,” Polozov said, complaining that this comes in violation of Savchenko’s rights.

Moscow’s Basmanny court refused to consider a complaint on Monday filed by Savchenko against her investigator’s decision for her examination at a psychiatric hospital.

In early July, the Investigative Committee charged Savchenko with involvement in the murder of two reporters, who worked for the Russian VGTRK TV corporation in Ukraine.

Russian investigators said Savchenko, who was arrested after illegally entering the Russian territory, joined the Aidar battalion during combat operations near the city of Luhansk in June. Locating the positions of the Russian TV crew and other civilians near Luhansk, she passed them on to the military that opened mortar fire on the group of people, which resulted in the killing of the Russian reporters Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in mid-June.