Lawyers of three prisoners sentenced to death in the DPR were awarded with insignia «For Contribution to the Development of the Bar»

The Guild of Russian Lawyers (GRA) awarded Igor Vagin and Dmitry Yershov, who represented the interests of three prisoners sentenced to death in the self-proclaimed DPR, with distinctions «For Contribution to the Development of the Bar». Attention to this was drawn by the publication «Lawyer Street».

The guild website says that Vagin and Ershov have been on a business trip “in the zone of a special military operation” since April 15 and almost every day they go to the war zone for investigative actions, including Mariupol and Volnovakha. GRA President Hasan Mirzoev said that lawyers «at the risk of their lives, disinterestedly perform their advocacy functions in the NWO zone.» He called their work «an example of civic heroism, courage and patriotism.»

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Yershov and Vagin at the investigation stage represented Britons Aiden Eslin and Sean Pinner and Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, who were sentenced to death in June by the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed DPR. They were accused of mercenarism (Article 430 of the Criminal Code of the DPR), although all three officially joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine even before the start of the war.

In addition, they were charged with “forcible seizure of power” and “training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities” (Articles 323 and 232 of the Criminal Code of the DPR).

“<…> Here is the question of volunteering. We ourselves turned to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. And they said: you're not sending a firing squad there, not «troikas», not executioners, but investigators. What will the investigator do? Write protocols — once, carry out their activities within the framework of CPC — two,” Yershov told Advokatskaya Street about the decision to defend the captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Lawyers told the publication that the Moscow and Moscow Region Chambers of Advocates approved their actions “at the level of leaders”. However, the first reported that they did not coordinate Vagin's trip, and the second refused to comment on Ershov's work.