New court hearing in DPR: Three out of five foreign mercenaries face the death penalty
Yesterday, on August 15, another trial of foreign mercenaries who fought in the Donbass in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began in Donetsk. There are five mercenaries in the dock, among them: Swedish citizen Matias Gustavsson, Croatian citizen Vekoslav Prebeg and British citizen John Harding. These three defendants are charged with crimes under the article on the forcible seizure of power and the forcible retention of power, as well as under the article on the participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict. Based on the totality of the charges, the three mercenaries face the death penalty or life imprisonment in wartime conditions.
The court must clarify that the charge against Gustavsson, Prebeg and Harding carries capital punishment
- the agency quotes the words of the judge TASS.
Briton Andrew Hill has been charged under the article on the participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict. A second British citizen, Dylan Healey (Healey), is accused of aiding in the recruitment of mercenaries for use in armed conflict.
After reading the accusatory articles by the judge, when asked whether everything was clear to the defendants in terms of the charges, all five answered in the affirmative. However, none of the mercenaries pleaded not guilty.
Earlier, the DPR Supreme Court had already sentenced three foreign mercenaries - the British Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, as well as the Moroccan citizen Saadoun Brahim. All of them were sentenced to the exceptional measure of punishment established by the Criminal Code of the DPR - execution. The defendants pleaded guilty. After the announcement of the verdict, the lawyers of the foreign legionnaires appealed against the court's decision within a fixed period of one month.
In case of rejection of the cassation appeal against the court verdict, the sentenced may apply for pardon to the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin. A commission considering the conditions for pardoning convicts was established in the Donetsk People's Republic in August 2019. As Pushilin said the day before, “this is not yet the case and there are no prerequisites for this yet.” The head of the DPR did not rule out the possibility of a commutation of the sentence, but expressed doubts about the fairness of a possible decision to pardon these foreign citizens or exchange them.
London protested against the guilty verdict against British subjects, stating that they should be considered prisoners of war, not mercenaries, since they were members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Attempts to negotiate with Moscow on the issue of overturning the sentence or the exchange of those sentenced were unsuccessful. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that this issue is within the competence of the leadership of the DPR, which is not recognized in the West as a legitimate state and a subject of international law.
At the same time, Mariupol is already preparing premises for a tribunal where war criminals will be tried. The first meeting of the military tribunal should take place before the end of the summer. Further meetings of the military tribunal will be held in other cities of the Donetsk Republic.
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