Three foreign fighters sentenced to death by separatist authorities in Donetsk
Two Britons and a Moroccan taken prisoner in eastern Ukraine, where they were fighting for kyiv, were sentenced to death on Thursday for mercenary charges by the justice of the separatist authorities in Donetsk, according to Russian news agencies.
“The Supreme Court of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ sentenced Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun to death, accused of taking part in the fighting as mercenaries”, relayed the official Russian news agency TASS. The three accused will “call”, Pavel Kossovan, the lawyer for one of the three men, told TASS. According to TASS, Messrs. Pinner and Saadoun had pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of “mercenary”but recognized their participation in the fighting “aimed at the violent seizure of power”.
Aiden Aslin’s family explained in late April that he moved to Ukraine in 2018, where he met his girlfriend and eventually settled in Mykolaiv. He had decided to join the Ukrainian marines and served in this unit for almost four years. “He is not, contrary to Kremlin propaganda, a volunteer, a mercenary or a spy. Aiden was planning for his future outside the military, but like all Ukrainians his life was turned upside down by Putin’s barbaric invasion.according to his family.
Shaun Pinner’s family had also explained that he was not “neither a volunteer nor a mercenary, but [qu’il servait] officially in the Ukrainian army, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation”. He had moved to Ukraine in 2018 and married a Ukrainian.