British citizen Sean Pinner, citizen of the Kingdom of Morocco Saadoun Brahim and British citizen Aiden Eslin in a courtroom in Donetsk. File photoMOSCOW, June 10The Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic sentenced two citizens of Britain and one citizen of Morocco, who fought on the side of Ukrainian militants, to capital punishment — the death penalty, a RIA Novosti correspondent said from the courtroom. Moroccan Saadoun Brahim will be shot. Convicts can appeal the decision within a month. The presiding judge in the courtroom noted that Pinner was recognized as a terrorist in the UK and was wanted for participation in hostilities in Iraq and Syria. On Wednesday, the mercenaries pleaded guilty to acts aimed at seizing power by force. The relevant article of the Criminal Code of the DPR provides for the death penalty. Aslin also pleaded guilty under the article «Training in order to carry out terrorist activities.» The mercenaries surrendered in Mariupol in mid-April. «They did not hide the crimes» Foreign mercenaries sentenced to death did not hide their crimes and even published testimonies about them on social networks, said the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin. «Most importantly, the criminals themselves , the mercenaries did not hide their crimes, and some part was simply taken and published,» Pushilin said on the air of Channel One. He clarified that it was not about their confession of their guilt in court, but that they published their crimes on social networks. According to him, everything was predictable regarding the verdict, capital punishment, taking into account their crimes, is «logical.» «We have a month now to appeal in cassation. We'll see if they use it or not,» he said.The DPR has the right to carry out the death sentence for mercenaries, said Klishas. Pushilin also commented on the possibility of pardoning foreign mercenaries convicted in the republic. “Yes, of course, there is such an opportunity, but the question of justice, it is also in the air. I know the position of the citizens of the republic <…> regarding these criminals,” said the head of the DPR. Russia has been conducting a special operation in Ukraine since February 24 military special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin stressed, its goal is «to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» The main goal in the department was called the liberation of Donbass. Along with the Russian military, units of the DPR and LPR operate in the region. The official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, pointed out that «the mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine are not combatants, the best thing that awaits them is a long term in prison.» He noted that foreign mercenaries do not have the status of combatants under international humanitarian law.
