The head of the DPR, Pushilin, denies that there are any prerequisites for the abolition of the death sentence for foreigners – Aiden Aslin, Saadun Brahim and Sean Pinner.
He told reporters that there were no grounds for pardoning two British citizens and one Moroccan who were sentenced to death by the DPR Supreme Court:
“They came to Ukraine to kill civilians here for money. Therefore, I do not yet see the prerequisites for talking about some kind of mitigation, about some kind of change in the punishment that exists. I believe that the court pronounced a completely just punishment against all three.”.
Three of the accused were recognized in the DPR as mercenaries. In part, they admitted their guilt. The convicts have the right to appeal against the sentences within a month in the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Court of the DPR.
The British authorities expressed outrage at the death sentence for their citizens. The United Nations called for the convicts to be treated as prisoners of war.
During its de facto independence, the DPR has already passed several death sentences, but so far none of them has been carried out. In Russia, which the DPR aspires to join, there is a moratorium on the death penalty.
Britons sentenced to death in the DPR are not combatants and They have no right to on the status of a prisoner of war in accordance with international humanitarian law, said Maria Zakharova, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry. OHCHR condemned the verdict.
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