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Russian human rights commissioner to keep track of former Ukrainian pilot Savchenko case

The press service specified that Ella Pamfilova plans to keep track of the humanitarian and procedural aspects of Savchenko’s case in the framework of her powers

Nadezhda Savchenko EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

Nadezhda Savchenko

© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

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MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. Russia’s human rights commissioner Ella Pamfilova will keep following the case of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, Pamfilova’s press service told TASS on Wednesday after her meeting with foreign ambassadors.

The press service specified that the ombudswoman plans to keep track of the humanitarian and procedural aspects of Savchenko’s case in the framework of her powers.

Investigators say that during combat operations near the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in the summer of 2014, Savchenko, who was a gunner for a Mil Mi-24 (NATO reporting name: Hind) helicopter gunship, joined the Aidar battalion — a paramilitary group of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.

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She is suspected of involvement in the murder of two Russian journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, near Luhansk in July 2014, as well as of illegally crossing the Russian border. The two criminal cases against her have been integrated.

In protest, Savchenko, who does not admit her guilt, went on a hunger strike December 13, 2014, and initially refused to end it until her release, but on March 5 she agreed to eat chicken soup after doctors recommended her to do so and started to take nutrient medications.

Pamfilova and other human rights advocates — members of the presidential Human Rights Council — have repeatedly visited her in the pre-trial detention center.

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Human rights Ella Pamfilova

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