MOSCOW - The defense lawyers for Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is charged in Russia with being an accomplice in the killing of Russian journalists, has contested an order requiring her to undergo a mental evaluation.
“Today, the defense lawyers have contested the investigators’ order requiring a comprehensive mental evaluation in accordance with Article 124 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure by filing complaints to Investigative Committee Director [Alexander] Bastrykin and Russian Prosecutor General [Yury] Chaika,” Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer for the pilot, said on Facebook.
According to earlier reports, Savchenko is being transferred to Moscow for this evaluation. “Nadezhda will be transferred to Moscow to undergo a mental evaluation in the Serbsky Institute in the nearest future,” lawyer Mark Feygin told Interfax.
Last week, the Voronezh Sovetsky District Court extended Savchenko’s detention until October 30.
It was reported earlier that Savchenko, a 31-year-old navigator, was fighting with the Aidar volunteer battalion in eastern Ukraine when she was captured by illegal armed units in June near the town of Schastia, a suburb of Luhansk. It was said on July 8 that she was being held at the Voronezh pre-trial detention facility in Russia.
Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee claimed that Savchenko had crossed the border without documents under the guise of a refugee and was detained later for identification, after which it turned out that she was suspected of playing some role in the killing of Russian TV journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin near Luhansk. On July 9, Russia indicted her for complicity in murder.
