A Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk began the trial after being captured by Russian troops
The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk has sentenced two British citizens and a Moroccan accused of participating in the war in Ukraine on behalf of the Ukrainian side to death on Thursday.
The Donetsk Justice began on Monday the trial of Sean Piner, Aiden Aslin and Sadun Brahim, captured by Russian troops in the framework of the war and who admitted on Wednesday part of the crimes attributed to them.
Now, once “all the evidence” has been analyzed, the Supreme Court has proven the guilt of the accused and has determined that they must be “sentenced to death,” according to the Russian news agency TASS.
The Donetsk Justice charges Piner, Aslin and Brahim with committing crimes as a group, among which is the forced seizure of power, while accusing them of acting as mercenaries in the war in Ukraine.
Shortly after the start of the war, the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, launched the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Legion, a detachment through which kyiv sought to swell its ranks with international volunteers.
According to the Russian authorities, almost 7,000 foreigners from more than 60 countries have joined the Ukrainian forces to participate in the conflict since it began in late February, more than a hundred days ago.
Russia says just over 1,000 of these “foreign mercenaries” were captured, while around 400 were trapped during the siege of the Azovstal steel plant.
London reaction
Once the sentence of the foreign fighters was known, the British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, has denounced that the verdict has been given in the framework of a “false trial with absolutely no guarantees”.
Along the same lines, Downing Street has conveyed its concern about what happened and has recalled that prisoners of war should not be prosecuted for participating in hostilities, according to the British BBC radio television.
“We will continue to work with the Ukrainian authorities to try to secure the release of any British citizen who has been serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and is being held as a prisoner of war,” a government spokesman said.