UNIAN
Ukrainian pilot and Verkhovna Rada MP Nadia Savchenko, who is being detained in Russia, has been approved as a member of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter on Monday.
"Nadia Savchenko has been officially approved as a member of the [Ukrainian] delegation to the PACE and got all the relevant privileges and immunities," Klimkin said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Savchenko was abducted by Russian-backed militants in the Donbas in the summer of 2014, and then taken to Russia, where she was charged with being involved in the death of Russian journalists.
On October 27, 2014 Moscow's Basmanniy court extended the detention of Savchenko until February 13, 2015. On December 22, Moscow City Court rejected an appeal of the lawyers of Savchenko and left her in custody in the remand center No. 6 of the Moscow jail.
On October 26, during the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, Savchenko was elected as an MP from the Batkivshyna Party.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has called on international organizations and inter-parliamentary assemblies to make efforts to free Savchenko.
On December 15, Savchenko went on hunger strike in protest at being denied medicines she requires.