46 MEPs demand that Putin immediately release Nadiya Savchenko

46 Members of the EU Parliament have signed a collective letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, demanding that he immediately free Ukrainian pilot and MP Nadiya Savchenko. The 34-year old woman was kidnapped across the border and sentenced to 22 years of prison in a trial internationally recognized as farcial and fabricated. Protesting against her unlawful imprisonment, Ms. Savchenko is on a 120-day hunger strike and it is 9 days since she stopped drinking water. Having received intravenous drip with saline solution two days ago, she is on the margin of death. The MEPs stress that in case of a tragic outcome, Vladimir Putin will be directly responsible.

Read more: Nadiya's case: Why the world calls to #FreeSavchenko

Strasbourg, 13 April 2016 To: Mr Vladimir Putin President of the Russian Federation

Mr President, We, members of the European Parliament, address you in order to express our strong protest concerning the "trial" of Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, military pilot and member of theVerkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. We strongly criticise this politically-orchestrated shameful decision of the Russian court and we call on the Russian Federation to stop violating the international humanitarian law and, in particular, the Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949. We also wish to remind you that under the Minsk Agreements the Russian Federation has agreed to the exchange of all hostages and illegally detained people on the basis of the all-to-all principle and call for its full implementation. We remain very much concerned about an extremely fragile state of health of Nadiya Savchenko, particularly when she has decided to renew a dry hunger strike, and demand her immediate release. We emphasize our determination to continue raising public attention to the case and draw your attention to the strong interest that a larger public has taken in the case of Nadiya Savchenko in the EU and beyond as well as the degree to which the unfair and illegal process against her has harmed the image of the Russian government abroad. Mr President, We urge you to show due respect to your own commitments and obligations and immediately and unconditionally release Nadiya Savchenko, as well as Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko and other citizens of Ukraine illegally prisoned in Russia. Finally, we underline that the release of these citizens of Ukraine is one of the necessary steps towards possible normalisation of the relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation.