Posted on 03/09/2016 6:04:12 PM PST by annalex
"They will sentence me posthumously" - Nadiya Savchenko
23 years of imprisonment and nearly one thousand U.S. dollars in fines. It is the punishment the Russian prosecutors are seeking for Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko.
The final stage of the trial - the debates - started on Wednesday, March 2, in the Russian city of Donetsk in the Rostov region.
Watch also Russian prosecutors demand 23 years in prison for Nadiya Savchenko
Ukrainian pilot's powerful speech in Russian court: Full text
I'll speak in Russian to save on a translator, a translator which, as I quite well understand, would be at my own expense. That said, according to human rights law, an interpreter ought to be provided free of charge.
Well, firstly, I want to apologize to the audience for my emotional behaviour. The fact is, it's very difficult to listen to the same lies over and over again for six months and then hear them repeated all day long. Therefore, I couldn't help reacting to the prosecutor's speech like I did.
Now, regarding the debate. During this long and tedious six-month trial we learned that guilt was proven in the course of the judicial process. That guilt is of the Russian journalists [Savchenko is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists]. They are guilty of lying and of providing false, distorted information regarding events in Ukraine, the world, and in Russia. They are to blame for neglecting their own security. If they had worn body armour, they would have survived. If they had not hung around where they shouldn't have, they would have stayed alive.
Russian TV channels were also found guilty. Channels, their owners and their editors are guilty for sending their people - unprepared, unprotected - to their certain death, just for the sake of spreading pretty pictures and false information. They wanted to boost their ratings and made a quick buck. But they absolutely do not care about their journalists. They are the ones who are above all responsible for the deaths of Korneliuk and Voloshin [the two Russian journalists whose deaths Savchenko is accused of involvement in].
We watched here a video of Russia's Channel 5, in which a reporter said Ukrainian media were lying and Korneliuk and Voloshiin fact were wearing helmets and body armour. But even in this very courtroom it has been proven they had neither helmets nor body armour. We can arrive at that conclusion that Russian TV channels are telling lies.
Watch also Lawyer for Ukrainian pilot imprisoned in Russia says release could come in April
The guilt of Russian-backed separatist forces and Russian regular military troops has also been proven. They are guilty of killing Ukrainian people on our Ukrainian land. They are to blame for occupying Ukrainian lands. Let the Donbas' so-called 'peace-loving residents', victims and separatists scream as loud as they can that it was only they who were are being killed by Ukraine's armed forces. Even the video provided by Yegor Rossiysky [a Russian journalist] proved the opposite and showed separatists beating and killing Ukrainian prisoners of war.
This court also proved the FSB (Security Service) and Russia's Investigative Committee guilty. They are to blame for kidnapping people. They are guilty of torturing people. The group of [Ukrainian prisoners being held in Russia] Sentsov, Karpyuk and Klykh were tortured. These services and committees are to blame for trying, bad-mouthing and accusing those they kidnap and torture. These services and committees forge expert findings, and this was proved.
My fabricated 'case' - 40 volumes of gibberish - testifies to this. During the trial, the prosecutor and Russian judges were also found guilty. During two years of my imprisonment and my tribulations here, I found out that those people had neither honour nor conscience, nor do they abide by laws. They absolutely do not care about international laws or human rights, they are instructed by the Kremlin, and they are committed to fulfilling this 'state order'.
The trial proves the guilt of Russian authorities; they are to blame for seizing Ukrainian lands, capturing Crimea and starting a war in the Donbas region. They are to blame for trying to establish - through their foul undeclared wars all over the world - a totalitarian regime dominated by Russia.
They creep everywhere and kill people through genocide. We could observe the same practice in Chechnya, and Abkhazia. Now we are observing this in Ukraine, Dagestan, Syria. Everywhere, the Russian state's policies and interests are above people's lives, especially the lives of indigenous populations coming from the lands, which correspond to Russia's national interests. And so the Russian authorities are guilty.
Read also People from around the world send postcards to support Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia
I am the only person the court failed to find guilty. I am an officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I had every right to defend my land, I was fulfilling my duty. You do not judge veterans of World War II, and for the same reason you do not judge your own troops - but they also killed many people while defending their country.
You have no right to judge me. Considering my high self-assessment and examination results, the prosecutor's office nonetheless dared to make such a statement here. That's why I want to say - the more I meet these effeminate men, like prosecutors here, the higher grows my self-esteem as that of a woman, of a soldier and of a human being... Well, let's go back to the case.
I do not know how long this 'performance' will take, but I want to say: if, again, the verdict debate take three weeks (as prosecutors requested once), I will immediately resort to defence tools. If the court takes more than two weeks to issue a verdict (which has already been dictated from above and recorded), I will go on a 'dry' hunger strike from tomorrow, and they will sentence me posthumously, 'in absentia'.
I think it is pointless waiting for a POW exchange. If you want to find a political solution to this case and swap your two Russian Spetznaz [special forces] officers for one innocent person, it's too unjust. You should have swapped your Spetznaz guys for [Ukrainian political prisoners] Sentsov and Kolchenko. I'm not a bargaining chip, I am an innocent person, and my guilt has not been and cannot be proven. Therefore, I will stand no POW exchange, no bargaining deal, and no procrastination.
And here is the most crucial thing. Let prosecutors sentence me to as many years in prison, as they wish. Not a day longer, not a day shorter. All 23 years. Do not issue a longer or shorter jail sentence for me - so they won't make any further appeals or delay the procedure. You have proved that you are utterly impotent. You have already proved that Russia can disgrace itself, as exemplified in my case.
You have never defeated me and will never do it! Well, let's finish it all as soon as possible, I will not wait any longer. It was not you who have given me life, so you can't own it - and you can't decide upon my fate. If the verdict takes more than two weeks, I will not wait for it. That's all I want to say".
Watch also Savchenko threatens full hunger strike after Russian court ruling
Watch also the video of Savchenko's speech (with English subtitles), 112.UA International Channel: Youtube
If you want to be on this right wing, monarchy, paleolibertarianism and nationalism ping list, but are not, please let me know. If you are on it and want to be off, also let me know. This ping list is not used for Catholic-Protestant debates; all confessions are welcome.
From her statement, it sounds like she is guilty of the charge, and she is proud of what she did.
Why shouldn’t she be proud of serving her country that was invaded?
Because that’s what the putin’s troll said.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-savchenko-open-letter-to-european-leaders
A petition to the European leaders to help free Nadezhda Savchenko
He probably is only dimly aware of what the “charge” is.
Really? Do you think she targeted those two journalists through her bombsight?
Really? Do you know anything about the case? (Rhetorical question - the answer is clearly ‘no’.
She was fighting with a neo-Nazi militia - the Aidar Battalion - when the journalists were murdered and when she was captured. The unit which she fought with has been accused of war crimes by Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur50/040/2014/en/
The initial charges that she was the observer who directed fire on the journalists from a tower. Ground based fire control officers aren’t generally said to be using bomb sights.
Even the Ukrainian government has expressed concerns about the unit and its leader.
No, it’s the Ukrainian side that’s talking about bomb sights here, and apparently think she was flying an aircraft when the journalists were killed.
By the way - how do you all feel about the pope cutting a deal with the Patriarch and selling out the Ukrainian Catholics at the Cuban summit?
“27. It is our hope that the schism between the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine may be overcome through existing canonical norms, that all the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine may live in peace and harmony, and that the Catholic communities in the country may contribute to this, in such a way that our Christian brotherhood may become increasingly evident.”
I suppose she was: she is a pilot.
how do you all feel about the pope cutting a deal...
I may comment on how I "feel" on a thread dedicated to my feelings, long overdue.
You can thank McInsane, Rubio, Lindsey Grahamnesty , Hitlary ,and the whole BO admin for this mess ...they provoked the Russians
You suppose wrong. You really should know what you are talking about before you start slurring other posters.
I don’t know about “provoked”. “Enabled”, — perhaps. I am not a fan of our leadership of both parties. I think, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was naked aggression objectively; the kidnapping and a trial of Nadiya Savchenko is in itself a war crime. She is a POW, not a criminal.
The Russians are not dumb animals that one should not provoke. They are moral agents like any other nation. This is why they need to be responsible for their war crimes.
In fact, the reason the Russian Federation is continuing in the pattern of aggression against its neighbors is because the Russian Federation was never brought to justice for its behavior in 1939 - 1945, 56, 68, 2008. It is not that someone provokes them: the know they can get away with it.
Savchenko is not a war pilot?
Here are my questions:
1) Why is she being held illegally in Russia?
2) Since she committed no crime in Russia where does Russia get off trying her for a “crime” supposedly committed in Ukraine?
3) She is a military officer and was seized in uniform by Russian regulars and pro-Russian irregulars. Where in law do they have the authority to send her to a foreign country?
4) Is she being tried by a military court? After all she is a military officer and was seized in uniform and during combat?
5) The two “reporters” were killed in a mortar attack on a rebel checkpoint. How is being unfortunate enough to get yourself killed in combat in a war zone while hanging out with rebels a crime on her part?
6) If the billing data from her phone is correct - and it is because how could it not be - then she was seized one hour before the mortar attack so why is she under arrest then?
7) Why are the Russian lying and saying she voluntarily crossed the border as a refugee when they earlier reported they had captured her?
8) Why are the Russians resorting to their old commie trick of sending people who oppose them for “forensic psychological” stays in mental hospitals with this woman?
9) If they believed she needed a month long stay in a mental hospital, how could they turn around and assume or pretend she was competent for trial?
10) Why does the official Russian investigation report claim she voluntarily walked across the border - which makes no sense to anyone - when the Donetsk rebel entity said the exact opposite was the case from the very beginning? Who’s more trustworthy - those who did the capturing and delivering over to Russia of this woman AND ADMITTED IT FROM THE BEGINNING of the lying sack-o-crap Russians who had to back falsify their own official statements and media reports after the fact?
You tell me since you’re such an expert on the case.
Thank you. Your questions, with answers obvious to all, is a testimony how the Putin’s regime has lost all contact with reality.
Soon, no trace of them will remain.
This brave pilot and warrior has read Solzhenitsyn. She was fighting for her country. If there were but a thousand like here in 1917, the evil empire of the bolsheviks would have never came to be. Pray for her.
The heroes of the White Movement were like her. They fought bravely and died bravely. Also, the putinista are every bit like the Lenin-Trotsky reds: cowards when they are few, dumb and cruel when they are many. Both in 1917 and today, they are way too many.
1. Not supported by your evidence.
2. Many countries, including the US, permit the criminal prosecution of attacks against their citizens on foreign soil.
3. Ever hear of ‘rendition’? Ever hear of Eichmann? And have you ever heard of Adolf Eichmann?
4. Would you really prefer her to have been tried by a more efficient court martial where she wouldn’t have had a platform for her posturing?
5. In the statement here, she seems to be targeting for the content of their reporting. “They are guilty of lying and of providing false, distorted information regarding events in Ukraine, the world, and in Russia.”
6-7 She doesn’t seem to be asserting such claims in her closing statement.
8. You probably need to re-word that one so it makes sense in English.
9. The purpose of a psychiatric evaluation is to determine whether someone is competent for trial. If they are competent, you try them. If they aren’t, they should be treated in an effort to make them competent. This is a separate determination from that as to whether they are not guilty by reason of insanity.
10. She appears to have abandoned any such claims in her closing argument.
By the way - who is George Soros pulling for in the current US elections.
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