Nadiya Savchenko showed that she will be defiant to the end when during a March 9 court hearing she gave judges the middle finger. The Russian court said the same day it will not announce its verdict on her fate until March 21-22.
“You wanted my last address to the court? Here it is!” she said in
Ukrainian, stepping up on the bench inside the defendant’s cage and flipping
off the judges.
The question now is whether Savchenko will live until the verdict or
whether international pressure will be successful in getting the Kremlin to
release her. Savchenko is detained on bogus murder charges in the killings of
two Russian journalists in 2014.
Savchenko has been denying herself food or water since March 4 in
protest of the delay in her trial and is set to continue the hunger strike.
“If you want to show your power – show it. But remember that we are
playing for my life,” Savchenko told the court. “The stakes are high,
and I have nothing to lose.”
After she gave the judges the finger, the court asked the Russian
translator to “leave these abusive words out of the translation.”
The translator then read out the Russian version of Savchenko’s last
address that she posted online on March 3 after the court postponed her last
address to March 9.
The English-language translation of Savchenko’s last address to the
court is available here.
Russian prosecutors on March 2 said that she is guilty and asked for a
conviction and a 23-year prison sentence. Savchenko denies her guilt and says
her detention is illegal. She has been held in a Russian jail since August
2014.
She went on hunger strikes several times to protest her imprisonment but
also took liquids.
On March 4, Savchenko started yet another hunger strike, this time
refusing both food and water. Her lawyers and Ukrainian officials report that
her health is worsening. On March 9, she was reported to have a fever.
In the beginning of the March 9 hearing, Savchenko said she would
continue to deprive herself of food and water unless the court announces its
verdict within one week. When the court hearing ended, she started singing the Ukrainian national
anthem.
Nikolai Polozov, Savchenko’s lawyer, told reporters after the court
hearing that Savchenko has been suffering from a new symptom of starvation –
fever. Earlier Savchenko’s lawyers said she had dry eyes, a headache, rapid
heart rate and stomach cramps.
“If Russian authorities say clearly that the decision about her will be
made soon, and that she will be sent to Ukraine, she might stop the hunger
strike,” Polozov said, adding that a person can’t survive for two weeks without
food or water. “She would be either fed forcefully or die.”
Savchenko earlier said she would not allow Russian
doctors to examine her and conduct any treatment. Russian Foreign Ministry
banned Ukrainian doctors who wanted to visit Savchenko.
Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot and now a member of parliament and a
delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was taken
captive by Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in June of 2014 when
she was a volunteer fighter with the Aidar Battalion. She was soon passed to
Russian authorities.
Savchenko says that she was taken to Russia against her will. Russian
prosecutors claim she crossed the border voluntarily.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona
Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
