UK OUTRAGE AS TWO BRITS FACE FIRING SQUAD
Pro-Putin show trial judges sentence army pair to death
VLADIMIR Putin faced fury last night after two British soldiers captured fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death by firing squad.
Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin were convicted in a ‘sham’ trial staged by the Russian leader’s puppet regime in breakaway Donetsk.
Mr Pinner, a 48-year-old British Army veteran, looked distraught in the caged dock as the death sentence was read out.
Mr Aslin, 28, had earlier begged forgiveness as he was paraded on video for what appeared to be a forced confession.
The pair, both signed-up members of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, were taken prisoner in the city of Mariupol in April.
Along with a third man, Saaudun Brahim of Morocco, they were convicted following a three-day trial of the ‘crimes’ of being foreign mercenaries, attempting to seize power and conducting terrorist activities.
The Donetsk People’s Republic, in eastern Ukraine, takes its orders from the Kremlin
neither it or the court are internationally recognised. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: ‘They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.’
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, accused Putin of hostage taking and told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: ‘It’s not a state, it’s not a court and the judges are merely people dressing up and pretending. The reality is this is an absolutely brutal thing to do to three completely innocent people.’
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said the UK was working with Kyiv to try to secure the men’s release. Downing Street said the Prime Minister was ‘deeply concerned’.
Mr Aslin’s family said: ‘We love Aiden with our hearts. He and Shaun, as members of the Ukrainian armed forces, should be treated with respect just like any other prisoners of war. They are not, and never were, mercenaries. We hope that this sentence will be overturned and beseech the governments of the UK and Ukraine to do everything in their power to have them returned to us.’
Mr Aslin’s MP, former Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick, said: ‘This disgusting Sovietera show trial is the latest reminder of the depravity of Putin’s regime. The Russian ambassador and government need to know they won’t get away with this.’
Mr Aslin moved to Ukraine in 2018 after meeting his now-fiancee. In the same year he became a marine with the Ukrainian military. Mr Pinner is a British Army veteran who served in the Royal Anglian Regiment and also moved to Ukraine four years ago to marry his second wife. Western diplomats see the show trial as a cynical Kremlin tactic to put pressure on London in revenge for its support for Ukraine.
It is thought Moscow may use the men as leverage for a prisoner exchange.
The sentences followed a farcical lightningall fast trial in which three of the five ‘witnesses’ in the prosecution case did not even appear.
Ahead of sentencing, Mr Aslin was filmed in his cell saying: ‘I’m praying to God that the people of Donbas will forgive me my actions and see that I was easily misled. Live by the sword and die by the sword. I hope
‘Cynical tactic to put pressure on London’
the people forgive me.’ But Judge Alexander Nikulin ignored the plea. He told the prisoners they had one month to appeal and could also request a political pardon.
Mr Pinner appeared to struggle with his emotions but Mr Aslin was more composed and later told a TV camera: ‘I was hoping the sentence would be a lot fairer judging the circumstances in which I helped the investigation and also because I surrendered to the Donetsk People’s Republic.
‘I wish it could be different but God will be the one that will judge me.’
On primetime Russian state TV, Putin propagandists staged a sickening debate on whether the Britons should be executed with a gun or hanged and quartered.
Anchorman Vladimir Solovyov – known as ‘Putin’s Voice’ – gleefully predicted Mr Johnson’s popularity would slip further when the
British nationals were ‘bumped off’. russia itself does not administer the death penalty in judicial cases and nor does Ukraine.
Ukraine’s head of civil liberties, Oleksandra Matviichuk, branded the court’s decision ‘made in Moscow’, and anti-Kremlin website Gulagu accused ‘cornered Putin’ of ‘taking foreign citizens hostage’.
A Whitehall source cautioned that getting more involved could worsen the situation. they added: ‘there’s a solid rationale for not wanting to escalate this and make it a bilateral issue between the UK and russia.
‘this is because international law considers them Ukrainian combatants, and Ukraine is responsible for them in legal terms. If the UK gets involved, it will aid russia’s argument that these are mercenaries.’
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said: ‘Under international humanitarian law, they are subject to the legal status of combatants.’
Meanwhile Putin has finally admitted that his ‘special military operation’ is aimed at returning former Soviet land to russia, not liberating Ukrainians as he originally claimed.
He compared himself to Peter the Great, an 18th century russian monarch who waged war on Sweden: ‘to reclaim our lands and strengthen the state. that’s what he did. It seems that it’s our turn now.’