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Ukraine ex-pilot lawyers’ motion on investigative experiment turned down by Russian court

Nadezhda Savchenko's lawyers asked the court to conduct the investigative experiment to find out whether it is possible to monitor a group of people from a long distance

Nadezhda Savchenko seen during a court hearing in southern Russian town of Donetsk AP Photo

Nadezhda Savchenko seen during a court hearing in southern Russian town of Donetsk

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Ukrainian ex-pilot says captured before attack on militia positions

DONETSK/Rostov region/, September 30. /TASS/. A southern Russian court on Wednesday refused to satisfy a motion filed by lawyers of former Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko on carrying out an investigative experiment, a TASS correspondent has said.

The lawyers asked the Donetsk court in the Rostov region, where the trial began on September 22, to conduct the investigative experiment to find out whether it is possible to monitor a group of people from a long distance.

The court ruled that there are no grounds to grant a motion.

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Under the indictment, Savchenko monitored a group of people in the Metallist village near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine from a tower located 2.6 kilometers away and adjusted artillery fire. Lawyer Ilya Novikov claimed that "it is impossible to distinguish a person in camouflage from a person out of a uniform and a person with a camera from a person with a rifle."

Savchenko, 34, is charged with complicity in the murder of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine last summer. Savchenko also stands charged with attempted murder of civilians who could suffer as a result of artillery fire and illegally crossing the Russian border.

Russian investigators say that Savchenko, the gunner of a Mi-24 helicopter, joined the notorious Aidar battalion during combat operations in the much-troubled Luhansk region of Ukraine in June 2014. Upon noting the position of a filming crew of the Russian State Broadcasting Company and other civilians, Savchenko allegedly reported the data to mortar-equipped personnel who opened fire on the crew and the civilians. As a result, correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed.

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Ukraine crisis Nadezhda Savchenko

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