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Kiev court extends custody term for lawmaker Savchenko

The lawmaker declared a hunger strike for an indefinite period

© Piotr Sivkov/TASS

KIEV, July 14. /TASS/. A court in Kiev ruled on Friday night to extend the custody term for Ukrainian lawmaker Nadezhda Savchenko for two more months, Ukraine’s UNN news agency reported.

The court hearings on the arrest of Savchenko lasted for several days and the ruling to leave the lawmaker in custody was announced late on Friday night. According to the Ukrainskaya Pravda daily, her custody term was prolonged until September 10.

Before the ruling was announced, Savchenko declared that she refused services of all of her lawyers saying the court violated her rights for the defense. The lawmaker also stated that she goes on a hunger strike for an indefinite period.

Ukrainian investigators claim that Savchenko plotted to carry out terrorist attacks in the parliament building and in the government district. If found guilty, she may face more than five years in prison.

The Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, stripped Savchenko of her parliamentary immunity and granted the go-ahead to detain and arrest her earlier in the year. A Kiev court put Savchenko into custody for two months on March 23, prompting her to declare a hunger strike. The court later rejected her appeal against the arrest and extended it for another two months.

Savchenko, a former Ukrainian military pilot who had taken an active part in Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine, was detained in Russia in June 2014. She had been sentenced to 22 years in jail over complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine.

She spent nearly two years in the Russian custody and was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 25, 2016. Upon her return to Kiev, Savchenko began an active political career as a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

However, she fell into disfavor of Ukraine’s authorities after her private trips to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine and talks with their leadership.

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