MOSCOW, May 28 (RAPSI) - Ex-Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko who stands charged with complicity in the murder of two Russian journalists has appealed extension of her detention until June 30, attorney Ilya Novikov told RAPSI on Thursday.

Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee singled out Savchenko’s case from a larger case of war crimes in Donbas and finished its investigation.

Savchenko was arrested in Russia last summer on charges of complicity in the murder of two Russian TV journalists during hostilities in Donbas and on illegally crossing the border into Russia.
TV correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed on June 17 in a mortar attack.

The defense lawyers have not ruled out that the case could be forwarded to a court in Voronezh since one of Savchenko’s charges, unlawfully crossing the Russian border, is only within the jurisdiction of this city.

Savchenko has requested that her case be heard by a jury. She denies the charges and claims that her detention was illegal.

Her attorneys also believe that the case was fabricated and there is no evidence of Savchenko’s involvement in the murder of the journalists. They also claim she did not cross the border voluntarily but was kidnapped.

The defense also states that the defendant is a PACE delegate and, therefore, has absolute immunity. However, the court earlier granted the prosecutor’s claim that Savchenko’s immunity does not cover her actions before she received this status in the assembly and that she committed the crimes before the election.