MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. Russia’s human rights commissioner Ella Pamfilova has urged the country’s top prison official to allow Ukrainian doctors to examine former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is awaiting a court verdict in a southern Russian detention facility.

In an official request to Gennady Korniyenko, the head of Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), the commissioner said she agrees with the call of the defendant’s sister Vera to arrange a concilium by Ukrainian doctors who have arrived in the Rostov region.

Savchenko has earlier refused to take part in such a procedure carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian doctors, Pamfilova reminded, adding that she keeps in touch with Vera and Ukraine’s consul.

The trial of Savchenko over killing of two Russian journalists began in southern Russia’s Donetsk city court in late September. Savchenko has been held in Russian custody for already a year and 8 months. The court is expected to announce the verdict in the case on March 21-22.

Russia’s prosecutor has earlier called for a 23-year prison term and a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,400) for Savchenko, who is charged with murder, attempted murder and illegal border crossing.

Investigators say Savchenko joined the Aidar militant battalion and in June 2014 conducted covert surveillance and direction of artillery bombarding targeting a checkpoint in the much-troubled Lugansk region. The settlement was full of civilians, including three Russian journalists.

Two Russian journalists — Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin — from the All-Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (VGTRK) died in the shelling.