KIEV, May 15 (Xinhua) -- A court in the Ukrainian capital said Tuesday it has accepted a request from state prosecutors to extend the pre-trial detention of lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko for almost two months.
Savchenko, who is accused of plotting a coup, will remain in custody until July 13, the Shevchenko district court said in a statement.
On March 23, Savchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament of VIII convocation, was arrested for 59 days without bail after the country's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko accused her 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.
