Ukraine's 'Joan of Arc' gets 22-year jail term after controversial Russian trial
A Russian court on Tuesday found captured Ukrainian fighter pilot Nadiya Savchenko guilty of complicity to murder two Russian state TV journalists in eastern Ukraine and sentenced her to 22 years in prison.
The court's decision threatens to further escalate already high tensions between Kiev and Moscow. However, it could possibly pave the way for a prisoner exchange.
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The two men Savchenko, an Iraq war veteran, was convicted of helping to kill were Anton Voloshin and Igor Kornelyuk. They died in an artillery strike at the height of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in June 2014.
"Savchenko committed murder by prior arrangement with a group of people out of hate and hostility," the judge said.
Savchenko has always denied the charges.
Throughout her trial, she has railed against the judge and Russian authorities. She displayed her defiance again on Tuesday as uncomfortable laughter erupted in the courtroom.
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Then, as the judge delivered the guilty verdict, Savchenko broke into song, forcing the court to take a recess ahead of her sentencing.
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When the judge did deliver the sentence after the court reconvened, Savchenko interrupted by singing the Ukrainian national anthem.
"Justice won't be served by an unfair trial that was highly politicized from the start."
Human rights groups were quick to condemn the verdict.
"Simply put, Nadezhda (Nadiya) Savchenko did not get a fair trial, and so her conviction is unsound and should not stand," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "There should be justice for the deaths of Kornelyuk and Voloshin, but justice won't be served by an unfair trial that was highly politicized from the start."
Kiev and Western governments have also called Savchenko's trial a farce, saying she was the victim of kidnapping and used as a political pawn.
Russian authorities claimed Savchenko was captured on Russian soil after sneaking across the border disguised as a refugee to escape the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
But Savchenko, who was fighting for Ukraine's volunteer Aidar Battalion at the time, insists she was kidnapped by Russian-backed separatist fighters and smuggled across the border to Russia -- and more than an hour before the attack that killed Voloshin and Kornelyuk. During the trial, her lawyers presented mobile phone records they claimed prove this.
Russia's latest show trial ended in the same manner in which it was conducted: marred by confusion.
Russian state media jumped the gun first in reporting a guilty verdict, followed by The Associated Press, the BBC, Financial Times and others, on Monday.
Part of the reason why is because verdicts in Russian courts can take judges hours or even days to deliver. In this case, it took all of Monday and Tuesday.
This clip from the Russian film Leviathan provides some insight into how it's done.
Savchenko has become a national hero in Ukraine and called the country's own Joan of Arc since her controversial trial began.
While jailed, Ukraine has voted her into parliament. She was also made a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Demonstrators spilled into the streets of the capital, Kiev, on Tuesday to protest her conviction.
Ahead of the verdict, Savchenko said she would go on a hunger strike unless she is extradited to Ukraine, according to her lawyers.
Savchenko has gone on hunger strike twice before, once for 83 days.
After the verdict was announced Tuesday, President Petro Poroshenko told the Ukrainian public in a nationally televised address that he was prepared to exchanged Savchenko for two Russian soldiers captured by Kiev last year.
Moscow previously refused to consider a prisoner swap until Savchenko's trial was complete. The Kremlin on Tuesday said only that the decision to do so rests solely with President Vladimir Putin.
In his address, Poroshenko compared Savchenko's trial to the corrupt judicial system under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
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Christopher is Mashable's Senior Correspondent covering world news, particularly the post-Soviet space and especially Ukraine, where he lived and worked for more than five years. As an editor at Ukraine's Kyiv Post newspaper, Christopher was part of the team that won the 2014 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism for coverage of the Euromaidan Revolution, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine. Besides Mashable, he has published with The Telegraph, The Times, The Independent and GlobalPost from such countries as Greece, Italy, Israel, Russia and Turkey, among others, as well as from aboard a search and rescue ship off the Libyan coast. Originally from rainy Portland, Oregon, he is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ukraine) currently based in New York.
