British POWs Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who are held in Mariupol, have been sentenced to death by Russian forces along with a Moroccan man. Among other things, this reports BBC News according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
28-year-old Aslin and 48-year-old Pinner dived a little less than two months ago in a video message on Russian television. In it, they asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a prisoner of war swap.
The duo has now been sentenced to the death penalty together with Moroccan Saaudun Brahim. They were part of the defense of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol when they were captured, writes The Guardian.
The verdict was handed down in a court of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. That court is headed by Russian armed forces and is not internationally recognized. The other Azovstal soldiers are also condemned in that region.
The British are officially suspected of having fought as mercenaries against the Russian army. According to the family of the suspects, they were part of the Ukrainian army.
Prisoners want to appeal
According to the Russian news agency Tass The lawyer of the three suspects says that they want to appeal against the conviction.
The United Kingdom is very concerned about the death sentence, a spokesman for Prime Minister Johnson tells news agency Reuters† “We have said before that prisoners of war should not be exploited for political ends,” the spokesperson said.
The British have made it clear that the two are prisoners of war. Therefore, they should be entitled to immunity and thus should not be prosecuted for their participation in the struggle in Ukraine. The spokesman said the UK will do everything it can to free the British prisoners of war.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has also strongly condemned the death sentence, reports Reuters.
Britons in Ukraine since 2018
Aslin is originally from Newark in central England. He moved to the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in 2018, where he joined the Ukrainian army later that year. He also previously fought for armed units in Syria against IS.
Pinner comes from the English region of Bedfordshire. He previously fought for the British Army and moved to Ukraine four years ago. There he used his military knowledge to train the Ukrainian army.
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