The Supreme Court of the People's Republic of Donetsk, an unrecognized pro - Russian entity in eastern Ukraine, today (Thursday) sentenced to death three foreign nationals, including two British and a Moroccan citizen, after being captured in fighting in the east while serving as fighters under the Ukrainian flag.
The captured fighters are Aidan Salim, a Newark resident in Nottinghamshire County in central England, Xuan Finer, a former British Army fighter from Bedfordshire and Saud Barahim, a Moroccan citizen and a fighter in the Ukrainian Marine Corps.
All the prisoners served in the Ukrainian army and enlisted in it legally, but the separatists chose to judge them as "mercenaries" under the law allowing foreign fighters to be executed.
The three's lawyer has informed the Russian news agency Tas that the three do not accept their sentence and intend to appeal it to a Russian court.
The three were convicted of "renting a sword" and "attempting to undermine the political order in the country."
The UK reacted with concern and outrage to the sentence.
Liz Truss, Britain's foreign secretary, said: "This is a false show trial without any legitimacy. We have repeatedly said that prisoners of war should not be used for political achievements. Under the Geneva Convention prisoners of war are entitled to immunity from trial fighters "Along with the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the release of British citizens who served as soldiers in the Ukrainian army."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mikhail Podolyak said in an interview with the BBC news network today that Ukraine is losing between one hundred and two hundred fighters on the battlefields in the east of the country and that this is a loss rate that the country will have a hard time with over time.
"We need hundreds of heavy weapons systems, not individual examples. If Russia is not defeated on the battlefield, it is difficult to imagine fruitful negotiations in front of them," the adviser said.
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