Al Jazeera News :
A Russian court has begun reading a verdict for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is charged with complicity to murder two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine.
The judge on Monday quoted arguments by prosecutors who said Savchenko, who served in a volunteer Ukrainian battalion at the time, called in the coordinates for shelling that killed the two journalists and several civilians in July 2014.
He also quoted them as saying she was driven by “political hatred” towards residents of Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
The judge in the trial quoted the prosecution saying that Savchenko was part of a “criminal group” and aimed to kill an “unlimited number of people.”
Prosecutors have asked for a 23-year prison sentence for Savchenko. Sentencing is expected on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian officer was captured in the summer of 2014 while fighting against pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine and then smuggled across the border to Russia.
A Russian court has begun reading a verdict for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is charged with complicity to murder two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine.
The judge on Monday quoted arguments by prosecutors who said Savchenko, who served in a volunteer Ukrainian battalion at the time, called in the coordinates for shelling that killed the two journalists and several civilians in July 2014.
He also quoted them as saying she was driven by “political hatred” towards residents of Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
The judge in the trial quoted the prosecution saying that Savchenko was part of a “criminal group” and aimed to kill an “unlimited number of people.”
Prosecutors have asked for a 23-year prison sentence for Savchenko. Sentencing is expected on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian officer was captured in the summer of 2014 while fighting against pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine and then smuggled across the border to Russia.
