Two British soldiers captured by Russia while fighting for Ukraine have been handed a horror death sentence by pro-Moscow rebels in what Britain immediately branded a “sham judgment.”
Aiden Aslin, 28, and British Army veteran Shaun Pinner, 48, were convicted of taking action towards violent seizure of power at a show trial in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, a Kremlin proxy.
It is believed both men’s horrific sentencing will involve death by firing squad, breaking Geneva Convention rules on prisoner of war treatment and prisoner of war immunity.
They will be allowed to appeal the judgment but tonight it sparked outrage among family members of the two men, military friends and colleagues and political figures.
The Daily Mirror's Defence and Security Editor Chris Hughes says...
These shocking death sentences plumb new depths in Russia ’s war-crimes-riddled invasion of its neighbour.
Both men legally signed-up with the Ukrainian military several years before Moscow’s tanks rolled over the border in February and they have prisoner of war rights.
They were seized in Ukraine and condemned by a show trial in Ukraine and cannot be accused of being mercenaries fighting for any old cause for money.
In truth it is likely they received a pittance for their service, but either way they were legal combatants before being seized in Mariupol.
The court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic very unlikely operated without interference from the Kremlin.
And it is possible their cruel sentencing is an attempt to gain political leverage and there may still be a way for them to survive this horrific ordeal.
But a death sentence is torture in of itself.
if this sham court carries out its decision it will be further evidence of the depravity of the Russian leadership.
And it is further evidence that Russia and its proxies cannot be trusted to operate within the boundaries of legality or humanitarian decency.
They are not “mercenaries” as that would mean they are merely guns for hire anywhere in the world.
Militaries all over the world, including that of the UK, have many foreign nationals working and fighting alongside them legally.
