Court Detains Nadiya Savchenko’s Commander, Activists Prevent Transfer

On Friday, July 1, Pechersk District Court detained former Head of Staff of the Aidar Battalion Valentyn Lykholit, call sign ‘Batia’, who was a commander when Nadiya Savchenko was fighting in the battalion.

"Batia was jailed for two months. There is a fight in the courtroom. Somebody poured water on the judge," journalist Sergii Ivanov reported on Facebook. He also said that the judge at the hearing was Khrystyna Hladun, the same judge who ruled to exclude former advisor to the ousted president Yanukovych Andriy Portnov from a wanted list and is currently being investigated as a suspect in a criminal case by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, thus implying she was not independent from the authorities.

Samopomich MP Yegor Soboliev said that Lykholit was detained by detectives from the Military Prosecutor’s Office in relation to a filing of the ‘Sievierodonetsk separatist leaders’, the former mayor and his deputies, who were governing the city at the time it became a part of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic. "They are accusing Batia and other fighters of seizing a camera and other valuable objects from them," the MP said.

Later human rights activist Tetiana Blyzniuk said that MPs and activists blocked the courtroom to prevent the transfer of Lykholit to the detainment facility. She added there were clashes between unidentified armed people and the activists inside the courtroom, and the activists were laying out tires in front of the court building.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda