Nadia Savchenko, who has been living on water and limited food since March 4, is suffering from symptoms of starvation, according to a regional Ukrainian consul general who visited the Ukrainian pilot and member of parliament in her Russian prison on March 7, The Kyiv Post reports:
Savchenko has renewed her fast in protest against her 20-month detention in Russia on false murder charges. The Ukrainian army first lieutenant was captured in eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014 and taken to Russia. She is charged with the murder of two Russian journalists. Prosecutors are demanding 23 years in prison for her.
More than 200 political leaders and other prominent individuals have signed an open letter to European leaders urging them to take “emergency measures” to demand that Russia release Savchenko, RFE/RL reports:
Svetlana Alexievich [right], the Nobel Prize Winner in Literature from Belarus, is among the signatories of the letter, which accuses Russian authorities of making a “mockery of civil rights, international law, and their own Constitution.”
“We appeal to you to take emergency measures with the goal of the immediate and unconditional release of 34-year-old Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, kidnapped and imprisoned for more than twenty months in the Russian Federation,” the letter reads.
The document says that the Russian authorities “have made a mockery of civil rights, international law, and their own Constitution.” They show disdain for the international community and the Minsk agreements.
“So far, all efforts of the international community have proven unsuccessful. On March 4, in protest against the proceedings of the Russian court, Nadia Savchenko announced a full hunger strike, refusing even liquids. Our ability to save her life will test the effectiveness of international diplomacy and our commitment to European values,” the petition says.
The letter has can be signed at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-savchenko-open-letter-to-european-leaders
Open letter to European leaders
We appeal to you to take emergency measures with the goal of the immediate and unconditional release of 34-year-old Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, kidnapped and imprisoned for more than twenty months in the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities have made a mockery of civil rights, international law, and their own Constitution. They show disdain for the international community and the Minsk Protocol alike. So far, all efforts of the international community have proven unsuccessful. On March 4, in protest against the proceedings of the Russian court, Nadia Savchenko announced a full hunger strike, refusing even liquids. Our ability to save her life will test the effectiveness of international diplomacy and our commitment to European values.
Nadia Savchenko’s final statement
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
I want to apologize to the audience for my emotional behaviour. The fact is, it’s very difficult to listen to the same lies over and over again for six months and then hear them repeated all day long. Therefore, I couldn’t help reacting to the prosecutor’s speech like I did.
Now, regarding the debate. During this long and tedious six-month trial we learned that guilt was proven in the course of the judicial process. That guilt is of the Russian journalists [Savchenko is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists]. They are guilty of lying and of providing false, distorted information regarding events in Ukraine, the world, and in Russia. They are to blame for neglecting their own security. If they had worn body armour, they would have survived. If they had not hung around where they shouldn’t have, they would have stayed alive.
Russian TV channels were also found guilty. Channels, their owners and their editors are guilty for sending their people – unprepared, unprotected – to their certain death, just for the sake of spreading pretty pictures and false information. They wanted to boost their ratings and made a quick buck. But they absolutely do not care about their journalists. They are the ones who are above all responsible for the deaths of Korneliuk and Voloshin [the two Russian journalists whose deaths Savchenko is accused of involvement in].
We watched here a video of Russia’s Channel 5, in which a reporter said Ukrainian media were lying and Korneliuk and Voloshiin fact were wearing helmets and body armour. But even in this very courtroom it has been proven they had neither helmets nor body armour. We can arrive at that conclusion that Russian TV channels are telling lies.
