3 foreigners who fought for Ukraine sentenced to death

Bakhmut (Ukraine), June 10

Two British citizens and a Moroccan were sentenced to death on Thursday for fighting on Ukraine’s side, in a punishment handed down by the country’s pro-Moscow rebels.

The proceedings against the three captured fighters were denounced by Ukraine and the West as a sham and a violation of the rules of war.

Meanwhile, as the Kremlin’s forces continued a grinding war of attrition in the east, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to liken his actions to those of Peter the Great in the 18th century and said the country needs to “take back” historic Russian lands.

A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine found the three fighters guilty of seeking the violent overthrow of power, an offence punishable by death in the unrecognised eastern republic.

The men were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.

Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the defendants – identified as Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun – will face a firing squad. They have a month to appeal.

The separatist side argued that the three were “mercenaries” not entitled to the usual protections accorded to prisoners of war. They are the first foreign fighters sentenced by Ukraine’s Russian-backed rebels.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko condemned the proceedings as legally invalid, saying, “Such show trials put the interests of propaganda above the law and morality.”

He said that all foreign citizens fighting as part of Ukraine’s armed forces should be considered Ukrainian military personnel and protected as such.

British Foreign Secretary Luz Truss pronounced the sentencing a “sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”

Saadoun’s father, Taher Saadoun, told the Moroccan online Arab-language newspaper Madar 21 that his son was not a mercenary as he hels the Ukrainian citizenship.

Aslin’s and Pinner’s families said the two men were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military.

The three men fought alongside Ukrainian troops before Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April and Saadoun was captured in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha.

The Russian military has argued that foreign mercenaries fighting on Ukraine’s side are not combatants and should expect long prison terms, at best, if captured.