Three foreigners sentenced to death in ‘DPR’

The so-called “Supreme Court” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, a pro-Russian self-proclaimed state in east Ukraine, has sentenced three foreign nationals to death for fighting on Ukraine’s side, The Guardian says.

The men in question are Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, the UK citizens, and Brahim Saadun from Morocco. They were found guilty of mercenarism and violent upheaval and sentenced to death. The trial started on 7 June.

Aiden Aslin has served as a Ukraine marine since 2018, according to Mediazona. He came to the country because of his Ukrainian girlfriend. Judging by Aslin’s Twitter account, he was taken prisoner in mid-April, the same time as his friend Shaun Pinner, a former combatant at the Royal Anglian Regiment. Both were official servicemen of the Ukraine military and therefore cannot be classified as mercenaries, Pinner’s relatives say.

Brahim Saadun, a Moroccan national, came to Ukraine in 2019 to study at a college in Kyiv. He dropped out last year and joined the same unit Aslin and Pinner were contracted to. He was captured by the “DPR militia” during the Battle of Volnovakha.