Global Twitter-storm for the release of Nadiya Savchenko: #FreeSavchenko

By mihail-shahin, uainfo.org
01.05.2015
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

On January 5th, an international online campaign commenced in support of Ukrainian pilot and “Batkivshchyna” party MP Nadiya Savchenko, who is accused in the deaths of journalists from the Russia 1 channel. Radio Svoboda reported on this.

Activists created and disseminated photo and video information about Nadiya Savchenko in different languages and distributed it with the hashtag #FreeSavchenko in Twitter and Facebook online social networks.

The Twitter-storm was actively supported by the lawyers of the Ukrainian POWs Mark Feygin and Nikolai Polozov.

The Twitter-storm was also joined by Embassies of Ukraine in different countries. In particular, a message about POW Savchenko was placed on the pages of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom, Macedonia, Japan, Armenia, Kuwait, and the Embassy of Ukraine to the Holy See (Vatican).

The US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, also joined the action.

As a reminder, on December 25, 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament [Verkhovna Rada] appealed to international organizations and interparliamentary assemblies for the release of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and included her in the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE).

Earlier, the pilot’s lawyer, Mark Feygin, reported that Nadiya Savchenko intends to stay on hunger strike until January 26, 2015 – the date when the Parliamentary Council of Europe (PACE) session starts in Strasbourg (France). If she obtains the mandate of a delegate in PACE from Ukraine and takes on diplomatic immunity, the Russian authorities must release her from custody, the lawyer said.

On his Twitter page, the attorney explained that Nadiya Savchenko began a hunger strike on December 13. He said she had lost about five kilos [11 lbs] and does not give in to entreaties to stop the hunger strike, which threatens her health.

Nadiya Savchenko stated that she recognizes herself to be only a political prisoner and a prisoner of war. She continues to be accused of the deaths of the journalists from Russia 1 Channel, although the pilot’s lawyers can provide the alibis to prove her innocence in the death of the correspondents.

With Nadiya Savchenko gaining diplomatic immunity as a PACE delegate, Russia will have no right to hold the Ukrainian citizen in a detention center or prosecute her in a criminal case.

On December 22, it became known that the Moscow City Court dismissed the complaint by Ukrainian pilot and “Batkivshchyna” Party MP Nadiya Savchenko and left her under arrest. In response, she said she would continue an indefinite hunger strike.

Source: UAINFO

Ukraine’s Emb. to UK
@UkrEmbLondon
The above tweeted link: http://uk.mfa.gov.ua/en/page/open/id/3883

The Ukrainian Embassy of Brazil retweeted 11 times #FreeSavchenko 11 different tweets by others.
MFA of Ukraine did about 41 retweets plus a couple tweets of their own: