The Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who was sentenced to death in the so-called “DPR”, has Ukrainian citizenship, informs Reuters referring to the father of the convicted Tahar Saadoun.
According to Saadoun Sr., his son became a citizen of Ukraine in 2020, after a year of military service. His plans included studying aerospace technologies at one of the Kyiv universities.
Also, the father of the convict said that Brahim Saadoun surrendered voluntarily, therefore he should be kept in the status of a prisoner of war along with other soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In my country blocked
present tense
On June 9, the authorities of the so-called “DPR” sentenced to death three foreign citizens who fought on the territory of Donbass as part of the Ukrainian troops – the Moroccan Brahim Saadoun and the British Aiden Aslin and Sean Pinner.
“Mediazona” wrotethat the Moroccan Saadoun Brahim decided to move to Ukraine in 2019. His defender Dmitry Yershov claims that the young man studied Russian for a year in language courses, and then entered the faculty of aerodynamic and space technologies of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. However, in the end, he dropped out of school, in 2021 he signed a three-year contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and ended up in the 36th Separate Marine Brigade.
According to the publication, British citizen Aiden Aslin met his future bride during a trip to Ukraine and stayed in the country, and in 2018 he took the oath and began serve in the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Together with Eslin in captivity turned out to be his friend, 48-year-old former Royal English Regiment soldier Sean Pinner. In 2018, like Eslin, he officially joined the APU and served in the 36th Marine Brigade.
Nevertheless, at a trial in the “DPR” that lasted only two days, they were found guilty of mercenarism and an attempted armed seizure of power. According to the court order, the convicts must be shot. They have a month to appeal.
A number of European countries, including the UK, protested against the verdict, demanding that it be overturned. “DNR” leaders and a number of Russian officials, including Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, said they saw no reason to review the sentence or the conditions for a possible exchange.
