Ukrainian parliamentarian Nadiia Savchenko, who has been arrested on charges of preparing a coup attempt, has asked former first deputy prosecutor general Renat Kuzmin to advise her if she decides to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In her letter to Kuzmin, which was posted on Facebook on Monday, Savchenko wrote that the hearing of her case by the ECHR would also be helpful to Ukraine.
“I would be grateful if you agreed to advise me regarding my defense and my possible appeal to the ECHR. Your cooperation with my lawyers would significantly increase the chances for Ukraine’s victory over lawlessness and the arbitrariness of each political ‘elite’ that comes to power in Ukraine, and this would be our common victory, the victory of the Ukrainian people,” she wrote.
“Among all of your political views and ideas, I exceptionally like this one: the restoration and stabilization of Ukraine’s legal framework in a special international court, in line with international law and the democratic values of the civilized world,” Savchenko wrote.
“My personal opinion is: the people who gathered at Maidan were fully entitled to express the people’s will through an armed uprising against the authorities. And I fully agree that both Maidan and Donbas must be tried using the same Ukrainian law, instead of inventing new laws for each particular situation in keeping with current political trends,” she wrote.
Savchenko and her lawyers are currently studying the case against her and Volodymyr Ruban, whose investigation was completed on August 1.
Valentyn Rybin, Ruban’s lawyer and the head of Officer Corps, an organization for the liberation of prisoners of war, notified the investigation on August 30 that he had finished studying the case.
Savchenko has been in custody since March 23. The Verkhovna Rada voted on March 22 to give its assent to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s request that she be arrested and held criminally liable.
Ruban was detained at a checkpoint in Donbas with an arsenal of weapons he was apparently trying to smuggle from the occupied territory to territory of Ukraine under Kyiv’s control on March 8.
On October 25, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court extended Savchenko’s arrest until at least December 23. She is suspected of involvement in activities aimed at violently changing or overthrowing the constitutional system or seizing power.
Kuzmin, who served as Ukrainian deputy prosecutor general in 2010-2013, is wanted on suspicion of abuse of office.
