You're reading: Ukrainian pilot Savchenko’s case forwarded to Rostov regional court

ROSTOV-ON-DON - The Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region of Russia has ruled following a preliminary hearing that Ukrainian citizen Nadia Savchenko's criminal case be forwarded to the Rostov Regional Court.

“The case has been forwarded to the regional court to consider the defense’s motion on changing the territorial jurisdiction,” the Donetsk City Court press service reported.

In line with Russian Criminal Procedure Code Article 389.4 Part 1, appeals or petitions against a first-instance court’s sentence or another decision may be submitted within 10 days from the date when this sentence or decision were handed down, and convicts held in detention may file such an appeal or petition within the same term from the date they were handed copies of a sentence or another decision, it said.

Taking into consideration that a translator is taking part in the case, a copy of the Donetsk City Court’s resolution of July 30, 2015 was handed to Savchenko after having been translated into Ukrainian on Aug. 4. Hence, the deadline for filing an appeal or petition will be Aug. 14, 2015, and therefore any progress in the case may occur not sooner than on Aug. 15, the court said.

Savchenko’s lawyer Mark Feygin said earlier to Interfax that the Rostov Regional Court would set the date for considering a motion by Savchenko’s defense team on sending the case to Moscow this week.

Savchenko has been held under arrest in Russia since July 2014 on charges of complicity in the killing of Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in the Luhansk OblastF. She has never admitted her guilt.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had reported on July 13 that it had endorsed an indictment against Savchenko and forwarded the criminal case to the Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region.

Savchenko was brought to pretrial detention facility No 3 in Novocherkassk, Rostov region, on July 25.