国际英语新闻:Ukrainian court extends pre-trial detention of lawmaker Savchenko

KIEV, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A court in the Ukrainian capital said Thursday 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 Dec. 23, the Shevchenko district court said in a statement.

Savchenko was detained on March 22 as a pre-trial restriction measure after being accused 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."

Earlier, a state prosecutor Olexandr Bannik said that Savchenko may face a jail term of 10 to 15 years or the whole-life sentence if found guilty.

Savchenko, who is held at a temporary detention facility of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kiev, called the accusations against her "politically motivated".

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.