FOG BLOG WORLD NEWS LOG: UK FIGHTERS CAPTURED IN UKRAINE SENTENCED TO DEATH BY THE RUSSIANS:

U.K. Fighters Captured in Ukraine Are Sentenced to Death by Russian Proxies The show trial against British citizens Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, as well as Moroccan citizen Ibrahim Saadun, was rushed through by Russian proxies in less than three days. Three foreign fighters captured by Russian forces as they fought alongside Ukrainian troops in Mariupol have been sentenced to death by a court in occupied Donetsk, Russia’s Interfax news agency reports.

The trial against British citizens Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, as well as Moroccan citizen Ibrahim Saadun, was rushed through by the Donetsk People’s Republic’s Supreme Court within a matter of just three days, with the first hearing held Tuesday and the death sentence handed down Thursday. They have one month to appeal the sentence. The sentencing was reportedly closed to the press, with only Russian news agencies permitted to send staffers. In the wake of the sentencing, authorities of the occupied territory said the men have the right to seek a pardon, and if clemency is granted they will get 25 years behind bars instead.

But if the death sentence is carried out, the puppet republic’s laws dictate that the condemned will be shot dead. The British government said after the sentencing that they would work with Ukrainian authorities to secure the release of those “being held as prisoners of war.”

Captured in Mariupol amid heavy fighting in April, the three were accused of acting as “mercenaries” for Ukraine and attempting to “seize power and overthrow the constitutional power” of the self-proclaimed republic.

Russian proxies who control the territory had threatened the three men with execution from the get-go, and Russia’s Defense Ministry noted that since they are not recognized officially as “combatants” in the war, they are not protected by international humanitarian law. Russian defense officials said, however, that they would likely only face a lengthy prison term.