Vira Savchenko was unable to meet her sister Nadiya, the Ukrainian parliamentarian currently held at a Security Service jail in Kyiv, on April 10.
“Today I tried to get in, and I’ve just been told that all visiting cubicles were occupied and they invited me [to come] tomorrow,” Vira Savchenko told Interfax-Ukraine on April 10.
The investigator probing her case said that Nadiia could be hospitalized, she said. “And the investigator said to me that she had asked to be taken to hospital tomorrow,” Savchenko said.
Such a request is not typical of Nadiya, she said. “This is not like her at all. She is very strong and probably she is simply in a bad state and will need to be hospitalized. But it could be that, to avoid any hysteria, they said that she asked [to be hospitalized],” Vira said.
She stressed that she was still unaware of her sister’s condition.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told Interfax-Ukraine that Savchenko was under continuous medical supervision.
“If necessary, she will be provided with the whole range of medical assistance she needs,” the SBU said.
This morning the SBU carried out searches at Nadiia Savchenko’s home address as part of the criminal inquiry.
On March 22, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada granted the prosecutor general’s recommendation and gave its consent to prosecute, detain, and arrest Savchenko. Law enforcement officials notified Savchenko that she was being treated as a suspect at parliament the same day, after which they escorted her to the Ukrainian Security Service department for Kyiv and Kyiv region.
The recommendation on depriving Savchenko of immunity from prosecution had been made as part of criminal proceedings opened on counts of preparations for violently changing or dismantling the constitutional system or seizing power by a group of individuals acting in concert, preparations for assassinating a statesperson or a public figure by a group of individuals acting in concert, preparations for a terrorist attack by a group of people acting in concert, the establishment of a terrorist group and illegal handling of weapons, ammunition, or explosives by a group of people acting together.
Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court ruled on March 23 to place Savchenko under arrest pending trial for 59 days, until May 20, 2018.
