Two Brits and a Moroccan
Foreigners convicted in Donetsk are at risk of being shot
7/13/2022 1:04 p.m
Death sentences have been carried out in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which is controlled by separatists, since Tuesday. Two convicted Britons and a Moroccan fighting on the side of Ukraine could now be shot – if their appeal fails.
Three foreigners sentenced to death by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have appealed the controversial trials, authorities said. That’s what separatist leader Denis Puschilin said on Russian state television. If the court of the internationally unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic” considers the sentence to be lawful, the sentence will be carried out.
According to Puschilin, the two Britons and the Moroccan would then be shot behind closed doors. The lawyer had previously reported to one of the men about her client’s appeal. The separatists in the Donetsk region recently lifted a moratorium on the death penalty. Puschilin signed a decree on Tuesday.
The men were captured by pro-Russian fighters in the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol in mid-April and sentenced to death as foreign mercenaries in early June. According to the media, the two Britons had lived in Ukraine before the war and also married there. Great Britain, Ukraine and the United Nations sharply criticized the death sentence and spoke of prisoners of war who were entitled to protection.
Puschilin also spoke of preparations for trials against more than 100 Ukrainian fighters who had defended Mariupol, which had since been conquered by Russia, until the end of May. The men of the Azov regiment are already in custody. According to media reports, other foreigners are being held by the separatists. Two Americans were also shown as prisoners on Russian television.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not rule out the shooting of the foreigners on Tuesday. Russia will not interfere in the jurisdiction of the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” which Moscow recognizes as independent.