A Z-JH8 helicopter sits on the deck of the Chinese People Liberation Army Naval hospital ship Peace Ark at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 5, 2014.
A Z-JH8 helicopter sits on the deck of the Chinese People Liberation Army Naval hospital ship Peace Ark at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 5, 2014. RIMPAC is the world's largest biennial naval exercise between the US and Pacific Rim nations and for the first time includes China. Twenty-two countries are participating. REUTERS

Many Russian rights activists have threatened to hold protests against the Russian government for the alleged custodial torture of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who was captured in eastern Ukraine and brought to Russia on charges of "abetting the killing of two Russian journalists".

The pilot aroused public sympathy after her lawyer Tweeted that she is put under severe mental torture by the Russian authorities. The protesters are planning a series of one-person pickets to avoid Russia's strict laws on public protests. The protesters are mobilising protesters through social networks, reported RFERL News

Russia's Charges

The prosecution charge is that the Ukraine helicopter pilot abetted the killing of two Russian journalists. She was allegedly captured by pro-Russian rebels from eastern Ukraine, during the civil war. The Investigative Committee in Russia has accused Nadezhda Savchenko (31) of alerting Ukrainian forces about the precise location of Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, the journalists working for a state-owned TV channel in the Ukraine's Luhansk city. The journalists had been killed in a mortar fire while on duty.

Savchenko is now detained at Moscow's Serbsky psychiatric hospital for psychiatric examinations. The matter caught public attention when Savchenko's lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, Tweeted last Friday that the pilot is being subjected to sleep deprivation at the mental hospital. Polozov tweeted, "All through the night, a prison official will sit in her doorway and watch her. It is torture".

Russia Denies Allegation

Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service refuted the allegations of the pilot's lawyer that she has been deprived of sleep. It said, "No one has deprived Savchenko of sleep", reported Tass.

It claimed that only the normative documents are being followed. "Accordingly, there must be one staff staying by a suspect in a medical institution round-the-clock". It added that the pilot is being guarded by two female officers.

Russian investigators also claimed that Savchenko was arrested for illegally crossing into the Russian territory and joining the Aidar battalion during a combat operation in Lugansk, in the month of June. In a latest update, the Committee said Savchenko is admitted at the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry for undergoing psychiatric examination. The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has put off the next hearing of the case to November 11.