Moscow - Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is suspected of being an accessory to the murder of Russian journalists, will not talk to doctors during her mental evaluation, which was ordered by the investigators, her lawyer said.
“Nadia Savchenko has signed a document saying she is refusing to talk to doctors during this evaluation. She is not going to help because she thinks her hospitalization is illegal,” Mark Feygin, a lawyer for the pilot, told Interfax on Aug. 28.
Feygin said his client’s refusal to participate in this evaluation does not obstruct it. “The evaluation will take place in any case because it was ordered by the investigators. Doctors are expected to talk with her during this evaluation and do some tests. Formally, she has a right not to talk to them. The experts can make their decisions on the basis of a conversation or on the basis of her refusal of such conversation,” the lawyer said.
Feygin said Savchenko and her defense lawyers were unconvinced by the arguments presented by the investigators for the evaluation to be performed in the Serbsky Institute over a period of one month. “In addition, such an evaluation rules out Savchenko’s communication with her lawyers and consulate officials. We will contest this decision in Moscow and in the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.
On Aug. 27, the Voronezh Sovetsky District Court extended Savchenko’s arrest until the end of October.
The court also announced that the investigators had ordered that the pilot undergo a mental evaluation at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow.
