Kremlin denies prisoner of war status for two British citizens "condemned to death" in the DPR 

"UKRAINSKA PRAVDA" – FRIDAY, 10 JUNE 2022, 16:36

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the British men who have been sentenced to death by separatists of the so-called DPR [self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic] have no right to the prisoner of war status.

Source: Russian "Interfax" news agency, with reference to the comment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Spokeswoman

Zakharova: "Contrary to the statements of British officials, the mentioned citizens are not prisoners of war, but mercenaries."

Details: Zakharova referred to international humanitarian law, according to which the British nationals are not "combatants", and thus this status [of prisoner of war] cannot apply to them.

According to her, no appeals concerning Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner have been received from the British side by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Previously: On 9 June, Russian state media reported that two British citizens, 28-year-old Aiden Aslin and 48-year-old Shaun Pinner, appeared in "court" in Russian-controlled territory in Donetsk, where they were found guilty of being mercenaries and "committing acts aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the so-called constitutional order of the unrecognised pseudo-republic of the DPR".

They were reportedly sentenced to death along with Moroccan citizen Saaudun Brahim.

Reminder: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom Liz Truss condemned the "sentence" against the British nationals.

The United States has expressed concern about the death penalty for foreign nationals and called on Russia to abide by humanitarian law.

The international human rights organisation Amnesty International called the "death sentences" a farce in violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.

The UN Human Rights Office has stressed that illegal trials of prisoners of war can be equated to war crimes.