MOSCOW, February 10 (RAPSI) – Judge Artur Karpov from Moscow’s Basmanny District Court refused on Tuesday to recuse himself from case of Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko accused of complicity in the murder of two Russian journalists, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Lawyer Ilya Novikov said that Judge Karpov was on the Magnitsky list, a human rights abuse sanction roster established against Russian officials in 2009. He added that the judge had never acquitted anyone.

Savchenko supported her lawyers’ motion, even though she considers it senseless to request another judge. The prosecutor and the investigator have spoken against the motion.

The RAPSI correspondent said that Savchenko, who went on a hunger strike two months ago, looks emaciated but upbeat. Several minutes before the hearing, she quarreled with a court marshal who tried to oust her sister from the courtroom for an alleged breach of order.

In fact, her sister only wanted to photograph Nadezhda. The judge also cautioned Savchenko against showing disrespect for the court.  The defendant talks with trial participants through an interpreter.

Savchenko was detained in Russia last July on charges of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists during a military action over the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

TV correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed on June 17 in a mortar attack. Both journalists were later buried in Moscow. Savchenko has denied the allegations and claims that she was kidnapped in Ukraine and forcibly transported to Russia.

In Ukraine, she has been sworn in as a member of parliament. She was elected from the Batkivshchyna party along with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

In late January, Russian authorities brought new charges against Savchenko. She is suspected of unauthorized crossing of border, according to her lawyer Ilya Novikov.