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Newyork Daily - International News, Latest News, Breaking News,Sports, Business and Political News
Thursday, 09 Jun 2022 14:00 pm
Newyork Daily -  International News, Latest News, Breaking News,Sports, Business and Political News

Newyork Daily - International News, Latest News, Breaking News,Sports, Business and Political News

The families of two Britons sentenced to death for fighting Russian forces in Ukraine have said they need urgent access to medical and legal help.

Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were captured fighting with the Ukrainian army and tried as mercenaries by a Russian proxy court.

Both the British government and Ukraine's top prosecutor have said the sentences breach the Geneva Convention.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will speak with her Ukrainian counterpart later.

Mr Aslin, 28, from Newark, in Nottinghamshire, and Mr Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire - both of whom were already living in Ukraine at the time of the Russian invasion - were captured in April while defending the besieged city of Mariupol.

They were sentenced alongside a third man, Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim, by a Russian proxy court in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, a pro-Russian breakaway region in eastern Ukraine.

All three men were charged with being mercenaries, the violent seizure of power and undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities, according to Russia state news agency RIA Novosti.

The men's lawyer said they all wished to appeal against the sentence, Russia's Tass news agency reported.

While the two men had been living in Ukraine and serving in its armed forces for several years, they both have relatives in the UK who have been campaigning since their capture, along with the MPs in the families' two respective constituencies.

Robert Jenrick, MP for Newark, where Mr Aslin's family lives, said the sentencing of the British nationals breached the Geneva Convention "in the most egregious manner by Russia in holding this kangaroo court and now this sentence to death".

Mr Jenrick said he wants to see both men brought back to their families, "probably by a prisoner exchange".

But he added that Russia appears "to be in no hurry to progress these prisoner exchanges".

Richard Fuller, MP for North Bedford, said he had spoken to Mr Pinner's mother and stepfather who "clearly are very very anxious".

He said the priority for Mr Pinner's mother is that her son and Mr Aslin have "access to proper health services and the Red Cross" and access to independent legal advice, "as they seek to prepare their defence against this sham trial and this judgement which is completely against international law".

"At the centre of this is the recognition by the Russian authorities and their proxies in this region that Shaun and Aiden were members of the Ukrainian military, that they are prisoners of war and that the Geneva Convention applies", Mr Fuller said.

He added: "This is a humanitarian issue. This is about the rights of individuals under international law".

Downing Street said the government was "deeply concerned" by the sentences given to Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner, adding that prisoners of war are granted "combatant immunity" by the Geneva Convention and should not be "exploited for political purposes".

Ms Truss said the outcome of the trial was a "sham judgement with absolutely no legitimacy" and that the government was doing "everything we can" to support the men's families.

She is expected to discuss the situation with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba by phone later.

Ukraine's foreign ministry described the "so-called trial" of the two Britons and the Moroccan national as "miserable" and said the Ukrainian government would "continue to make every effort to release all defenders of Ukraine".

"Such public trials place the interests of propaganda above law and morality, and undermine the exchange mechanisms of war prisoners," a spokesperson told the BBC.

Donbas map

In a statement, Ukrainian prosecutor general Irina Venediktova said that, as prisoners of war, the three men "cannot be prosecuted for taking a direct part in hostilities" and that "their detention should only aim to prevent their further participation in the conflict".

"[The sentencing] is nothing else but a violation and mockery of international humanitarian law and international human rights law obligations of Russia as an occupying power via proxies," she said.

"Russia once again displays its alienation from the rules-based system and a blatant disregard of the very core of the rule of law.

"Ukraine has already initiated pre-trial investigation into this matter and will take all appropriate steps to ensure that everyone that was involved in this illegal action is held responsible for their actions."

Interfax, another Russian news agency, claimed the men would be able to appeal against their conviction.

Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight, American former soldier Brennan Phillips, who previously worked with Mr Aslin in Ukraine, discussed how he thought the outcome of the trial would be received by those still fighting Russian forces in Ukraine.

"Whatever effect they thought they would have... I don't think it's going to be well-received," he said.

Mr Phillips said he believed the death sentence handed to the men was a deliberate "provocation" by Russia and that he was hopeful it would not ultimately be carried out.