Russian court due to rule in murder trial of Ukrainian pilot

A Russian court was due to deliver its verdict on Tuesday in the trial of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, charged over the deaths of two Russian journalists in a case that the West and Kiev have dubbed a farce.

The judge started reading his decision for a second day after adjourning the court on Monday without handing the verdict on Savchenko's alleged involvement in the killing of two Russian state TV journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Russian prosecutors have sought a 23-year jail term, while the EU and Washington have repeatedly demanded her immediate release.

The 34-year-old combat helicopter navigator -- who says she was abducted by pro-Russian fighters before the journalists were killed and then smuggled into Russia -- will be found guilty, her lawyers have said.

Kiev meanwhile has already been pushing for a prisoner swap.

Lawyer Mark Feygin said Tuesday that Savchenko will not appeal because she "doesn't believe in the effectiveness of the justice system" in Russia.

The prosecution alleges that Savchenko acted as a "spotter" in the June 2014 shelling which killed journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, just two months after the start of the pro-Kremlin uprising in Ukraine's industrial east.

At the time she was serving in a volunteer pro-Kiev battalion fighting the insurgents.

Since her arrest, Savchenko has become a national hero in Ukraine and has even been elected to parliament in absentia.

- Bargaining chip -

Savchenko has struck a defiant figure throughout her long detention, which saw her sent to a psychiatric hospital near Moscow before being transferred close to the Ukraine border for her trial in the Russian town of Donetsk.  

She has ridiculed the court from the defendant's cage and flashed her middle finger at the judges earlier this month as her trial ended.

Several Ukrainian lawmakers supporters were present in the courtroom Tuesday, some wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, as well as Savchenko's sister.
In keeping with convention, everyone present in the court had to stand while the judge read hundreds of pages in a monotone, with the words barely audible.

There was a heavy police presence around the court, including snipers and sniffer dogs, to prevent any pro-Ukrainian protesters from approaching the building.

However an anti-Savchenko rally was allowed to wave banners and brandish flags of the pro-Russian separatists of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies have condemned Savchenko's case as a political show trial.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier are set to fly in to Moscow on Wednesday and, while the focus for Kerry at least is likely to be Syria, Savchenko's fate looks set to be raised.

Ukraine's pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko has pledged to do "everything possible" to bring Savchenko home and mooted a prisoner swap to free her.

Kiev is holding two men it says were Russian soldiers serving in the east of the country, who could provide Poroshenko with a possible bargaining chip.
Source: AFP