Donetsk, Jun 24 — DAN. The legal team of a British mercenary Shaun Pinner sentenced to death by the DPR Supreme Court is to appeal the verdict on grounds of humanity, Yulia Tserkovnikova, the defence attorney, said.
“We will call to humanity in our appeal, as the guilt of my client has been fully established. Appealing on the grounds of any proof of innocence is hardly possible,” she said.
Earlier Russian Interfax news agency reported that another British mercenary sentenced to death, Aiden Aslin, is going to appeal on his own, and the third defendant, Moroccan national Saadun Brahim, will file his appeal next week.
Tserkovnikova clarified that the court’s decision comes into force after the appeals are heard. Afterwards, if the appeals are dismissed, the sentenced can ask apply for a pardon.
The Appeals Chamber of the Donetsk People’s Republic Supreme Court handed down on June 9 death sentences to three foreign mercenaries who had fought on the side of Ukrainian armed formations.
The defendants, British nationals Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and a Moroccan national Saadun Brahim, are the first foreign mercenaries to be convicted in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
They were accused under four articles of the DPR Criminal Code: committing a crime by a group of persons, violent coup or retention of power by force, mercenarism and training for terrorist activity. The mercenaries pleaded guilty to the charges.
The court found that the mercenaries’ actions led to civilian casualties and damage to the Republic’s social and civil infrastructure. *ot