UN Condemns Death sentence for Ukraine foreign fighters, a “War Crime”

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War Crime: On Friday, the UN’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) denounced a court in Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for passing a death sentence to three foreign fighters.

“Such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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The three men — Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim – were apprehended while defending Mariupol, Ukraine’s southern port city.

Since the Russian invasion on February 24, severe battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces has flattened the city, where UN human rights director Michelle Bachelet has already criticized strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure that have likely resulted in thousands of deaths.

“OHCHR is concerned about the so-called Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic sentencing three servicemen to death,” Ms. Shamdasani stated.

“All the men were part of the Ukrainian armed forces, according to Ukraine’s chief command, and if that is the case, they should not be considered as mercenaries.”

In response to a question regarding the death sentences handed down during the UN’s regular briefing in New York on Thursday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that the Organization has always “and we will always” opposes the death penalty under all circumstances.

“We would call on the combatants who have been detained, to be afforded international protection, and to be treated according to the Geneva Conventions,” he added.

War Crime: Long-standing issues

Long-standing concerns about fair trial abuses in Ukraine’s breakaway eastern areas bordering Russia were also raised by the UN rights office spokesperson. “Since 2015, we have observed that the so-called judiciary within these self-contained republics has not complied with essential fair trial guarantees, such as public hearings, independence, impartiality of the courts and the right not to be compelled to testify.”

“Such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime,” Ms. Shamdasani said in Geneva.

“In the case of the use of the death penalty, fair trial guarantees are of course all the more important.”

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