The trial of Nadezhda Savchenko

On September 15, the Donetsk City Court of the Rostov Region will hold preliminary hearings on the case of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko. The materials of the criminal case against Savchenko were received by the Donetsk City Court from the Rostov Regional Court after consideration of the defense motion to change the territorial jurisdiction, which was denied.

According to article 234, paragraph 1, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a preliminary hearing is held by a single judge in a closed court session with the participation of the parties. "In order to ensure the safety of participants in the process, access to the court building will be limited," the press service of the court said.

On August 21, the Rostov Regional Court refused to move the trial of Savchenko's case to Moscow. "There are no grounds for satisfying the petition," the judge said.

The government opposed the transfer. "The jurisdiction of the case was determined based on the fact that one of the three crimes was committed by Savchenko on the territory of the Russian Federation and the case was sent to Donetsk at the scene of the crime. Only 17 out of 70 people to be summoned to court live in Moscow," the prosecutor said.

Savchenko's trial will be attended by "secret witnesses," Novikov said. "These are militants by occupation in the Luhansk region. Based on their status, I have suspicions that these are regular Russian military men, because one of them served mortars," the lawyer said.

As lawyer Mark Feigin explained, Savchenko cannot use consular assistance in Donetsk. In addition, he recalled that the relatives of the deceased journalists of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, recognized as victims in the case, live in Moscow. Novikov, in turn, noted that the transfer of hearings to Moscow is a matter of common sense.

Savchenko is charged with points "a", "e", "g", "l" of part 2 of article 105 (murder in a generally dangerous way of two or more persons motivated by political hatred committed by a group of persons), part 3 of article 30 - points "a", "e", "g", "l" of part 2 of article 105 (attempt to commit the same crime) and part 1 of article 322 of the Criminal Code (illegal border crossing). The pilot faces up to 25 years in prison.

As stated in the case, Savchenko, who after the start of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, served in the Aidar volunteer battalion, on June 17, 2014, handed over to her battalion comrades the coordinates for the artillery shelling, as a result of which VGTRK employees Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin were killed. The investigation explained the inclusion of an episode of attempted murder in the case by the fact that other civilians could have died as a result of this shelling. The case also alleges that later Savchenko illegally entered the territory of Russia, where she was detained.

In reality, Savchenko was captured by the LPR militants even before the shelling, during which Kornelyuk and Voloshin were killed, and was illegally taken to Russia, where they fabricated a case against her.

The choice of the venue for the trial is explained by the fact that, according to the plot of the case, Savchenko crossed the border with Russia in the area of ​​the Donetsk border checkpoint.