Sixty-one MEPs have signed a letter addressed to Vladimir Putin in which they call upon the leader of the Russian Federation to conduct Savchenko’s case in accordance with the European Human Rights Convention and to let MEPs participate in the hearings of the Ukrainian lieutenant.
In their letter, the MEPs emphasise that Savchenko was deprived of the possibility of contact with her defence lawyer and the Ukrainian Consul and that she was badly treated at the detention centre and forced to admit to a crime which she had not perpetrated as she herself emphasises. The signatories also note that Russia’s actions against Lieutenant Savchenko are in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and in particular Articles 5 and 6 on the right to liberty and security and the right to a fair trial.
The politicians who signed the letter also consider it unacceptable that the MEP Rebecca Harms, who was travelling at the end of September, upon a request from the Open Dialog Foundation, to attend the trial of Nadiya Savchenko, was denied permission to enter the territory of the Russian Federation.
The Open Dialog Foundation has been monitoring the case of Nadiya Savchenko from the very outset, and is organising observation missions in her case. The wide information campaign is bearing fruit, the best example of which is the fact that MEPs decided to send a letter to Putin regarding this matter.