Savchenko, a 34-year-old who has become a national hero at home in
Ukraine, was defiant as the verdict was read out, singing the Ukrainian
national anthem while standing on a bench.
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko to 22 years in jail after finding her guilty of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists during the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The sentence is likely to further inflame Russia's already dire relations with Kiev, and prompt protests from the European Union, which has called for Savchenko's release.
Savchenko,
a 34-year-old who has become a national hero at home in Ukraine, was
defiant as the verdict was read out, singing the Ukrainian national
anthem while standing on a bench.
She has denied having anything to do with the deaths of the journalists.
Russian
officials have signalled that, once the trial is over, they may be open
to negotiations about handing Savchenko over to Ukraine, possibly as
part of a prisoner exchange. Kiev is holding at least two people it says
are serving Russian soldiers seized on the battlefield in eastern
Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter: "The
result is an expected one, but all the same it's pretty painful ... The
'sentence' is not the end of struggle. It's the beginning of a new
stage in the fight for Savchenko."
SINGING PROTEST
The
judge, between shouted interruptions from Savchenko who was dressed in a
T-shirt bearing the Ukrainian trident, a state symbol, dismissed
arguments from her lawyers she could not have been involved in killing
the journalists.
"The evidence provided by the
prosecution side is trustworthy and completely disproves the theory of
the defence about Savchenko's innocence," the judge said.
He said the court had decided "to select as the final punishment for Savchenko 22 years of confinement of liberty with a fine of 30,000 roubles($442.28)."
Asked
by the judge if she understood the sentence, Savchenko stood on a bench
in the cage where she was being kept and began singing the Ukrainian
national anthem. Her supporters in the courtroom joined the singing and
tried to unfurl a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag, before security staff
bundled them out.
Savchenko, who had taken leave
from her job as a military pilot to volunteer with Ukraine's ground
forces fighting against the separatists in eastern Ukraine, was captured
by pro-Moscow rebels there in June 2014.
She was
handed over to Russia where she was charged with directing mortar fire
which killed the two Russian journalists, who were covering the
conflict.
She has repeatedly gone on hunger
strike, and from the glass and metal cage where she has been held in the
courtroom, has often shouted her view that she is the victim of a show
trial aimed at humiliating Ukraine.
In her absence, she was elected a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
However
Russian officials, and state television, have depicted Savchenko as a
dangerous nationalist with the blood of civilians on her hands. ($1 =
67.8300 roubles)
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