Ukraine's lawmaker Savchenko loses appeal against 2-months arrest

KIEV, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The high court in Kiev on Thursday has rejected an appeal by Ukrainian lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko against her arrest for two months as a pre-trial restriction measure.

Kiev Court of Appeals left in custody a suspect Nadiya Savchenko, the member of Ukrainian parliament of VIII convocation, the court said in a statement on its website.

Savchenko's lawyers have asked the court to change the pre-trial restriction measure to any other measure of restraint that is not related to detention.

Last week, Savchenko, who is accused of plotting a coup, was arrested by the Shevchenko district court in Kiev for two months as a pre-trial restriction measure. The arrest envisages no bail option.

Currently, Savchenko is held at a temporary detention facility of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kiev.

Savchenko was detained on March 22 after Ukrainian parliament has deprived her of legal immunity and allowed her arrest at the request of the country's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

Lutsenko has accused Savchenko of planning a "large-scale terrorist attack" in central Kiev aimed at a "forcible overthrow of the constitutional system and the seizure of state power in Ukraine."

Savchenko called the accusations against her "politically motivated" and launched a hunger strike against her detention.

Savchenko, also a military pilot, has formerly participated in the conflict in eastern Ukraine along with government forces.

She spent almost two years in prison in Russia after a court there found her guilty of complicity in killing two Russian journalists in 2014 during the conflict.

The pilot has denied her role in the murder and said she had been kidnapped in Ukraine and then handed over to Russian authorities.

Savchenko was elected as a member of the Ukrainian parliament while serving her jail term in Russia. She returned to Ukraine in May 2016 after Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her. Enditem