Savchenko not to appeal court verdict whatever it is — lawyer

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko will not appeal the verdict of the Donetsk city court in Russia’s Rostov region whatever it is, her lawyer Mark Feigin has told TASS.

"Regardless of whether the verdict will be guilty or not guilty, Savchenko will not appeal it. Of course, I disagree with this, but this is her principled stance," he said.

Feigin noted that Savchenko’s refusal to appeal the verdict virtually ruled out the possibility of further appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Speaking about the forthcoming March 2 debate, Feigin said he had no doubt that public prosecutors will ask for maximum sentence for Savchenko — 25 years in prison. "Of course, the prosecutors will ask for 25 years in prison, and that, of course, the verdict will be guilty. I think the judge will change the eventual prison term slightly, but it will be long anyway," the lawyer said.

Russian investigators say that Savchenko joined the notorious Aidar battalion, a paramilitary group of Ukraine’s interior ministry, during combat operations in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine in June 2014. Noting the position of a filming crew of the Russian State Broadcasting Company and other civilians, she allegedly reported the data to mortar-equipped personnel who fired on the crew and the civilians. As a result, correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed on June 17, 2014.

If found guilty, Savchenko faces up to 25 years in prison.