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UK fighters in Ukraine conflict sentenced to death

Samizdat | June 9, 2022

A court in Donetsk has sentenced to capital punishment three people, who came to Ukraine to join the Ukrainan forces against Russia. British citizens Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, as well as Moroccan citizen Saadun Ibrahim, were found guilty of mercenarism and attempt to seize power by force by the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on Thursday.

Under the laws of the DPR, forcible seizure of power carries a penalty of 12-20 years behind bars, but could be escalated to capital punishment due to wartime aggravating circumstances. Being a mercenary is punishable by a prison sentence of three to seven years.

The DPR, which was recognized by Russia as a sovereign state, tried the three foreigners on several criminal charges. They pleaded guilty to joining a terrorist orgainzation and attempting to forcefully topple the government in Donetsk, but denied being mercenaries hired by Kiev.

The three fighters were captured in or near Mariupol, a port city that the DPR claims as part of its sovereign territory. It saw weeks of intensive fighting and a blockade of remaining Ukrainian troops at a steelmaking plant.

London demanded that its citizens were treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions despite not formally being at war with the DPR. The Donetsk government said it considered them mercenaries, who are not granted the same privileges as regular combatants, since they were not part of any regular army.

June 9, 2022 - Posted by | Aletho News | ,

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