A court in occupied eastern Ukraine sentences two British and a Moroccan fighters to death

Three foreign fighters linked to kyiv's troops in Ukraine's war against Russian troops have been sentenced to death on Thursday after being accused of "mercenaries", several Russian news agencies announced.

These are two British citizens and a Moroccan who have heard the verdict with their heads shaved and put inside a cage, according to images published by various media.

The Government of the United Kingdom describes the process, which according to pro-Russian authorities in Donbas has been carried out in the rebel zone of Donetsk province, a "judicial farce" and calls on the separatists and Russia to respect the rights of the prisoners under the Geneva Convention.

"The Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic has sentenced to death the British Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and the Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, accused of having participated in the fighting as mercenaries," France Presse (AFP) reported, citing the official agency. of Russian news Tass.

Pinner, 28, and Saadoun, whose age has not been disclosed, had pleaded not guilty but all three will appeal the sentence, according to the lawyer of one of them, reports the Kremlin agency.

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Aslin, 48, has lived in Ukraine since 2018 and practically since then in the Armed Forces, according to his family, AFP reports.

“He is not, contrary to Kremlin propaganda, a volunteer, a mercenary or a spy.

Aiden was making plans for his future outside the military, but like all Ukrainians, his life was turned upside down by Putin's barbaric invasion,” they add.

On May 23, the Ukrainian justice sentenced the first Russian soldier tried for acts committed in the current invasion launched on February 24 to life imprisonment.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has condemned the death sentences imposed by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), an entity backed and controlled by Russia.

Truss described the process as a "judicial farce" in words published on her Twitter social network profile.

“They are prisoners of war.

This is a bogus trial with absolutely no legitimacy,” she added.

British citizens Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan national Saadoun Brahim, all of whom fought on contract with Ukraine's military, have been sentenced to death by the Kremlin's puppet authorities in Donetsk in show trial that lasted mere days.

They were not mercenaries.

pic.twitter.com/QYGOEkHXHE

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) June 9, 2022

From the office of the British Prime Minister, the reaction was not long in coming.

“We are obviously deeply concerned about this.

We have consistently said that prisoners of war should not be exploited for political purposes," said a spokesman for Boris Johnson, according to Reuters.

“Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are entitled to immunity from combatants, and should not be prosecuted for their participation in hostilities.

So we will continue to work with the Ukrainian authorities to try to secure the release of any British nationals who were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and who are being held as prisoners of war."

The provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, in the east of the country, have been the scene of a war between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army since 2014. Now, in the fourth month of the invasion by Kremlin troops In the former Soviet republic, Donbas is the scene of the bloodiest fighting, especially for control of the city of Severodonetsk, the most important in the Lugansk region that remains outside Russian control.

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