Pushylin says death penalty in "DPR" will be by firing squad, date will not be given
IRYNA BALACHUK — WEDNESDAY, 13 JULY 2022, 13:58
Denys Pushylin, the pro-Kremlin puppet leader of the militants of the so-called "DPR", has said that US representatives have not yet contacted him about the foreigners captured by terrorists from the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Source: Russian propaganda publication "RIA Novosti" citing Pushylin
Quote from Pushylin: "At the moment, none of the representatives of the American authorities has come forward. How it will be possible to extract or save its citizens without reaching out to the leadership of the Donetsk People's Republic is still impossible even to discuss."
Details: The militant leader added that two Britons and a Moroccan, who were sentenced to death by the terrorists for defending Ukraine, are now appealing their sentences.
He said that if the court does not approve their appeals, they will be executed by firing squad.
Pushylin emphasised that the occupiers’ pseudo-legislation does not provide for a specific date for carrying out the sentence – they say that the enforcement service is governed by its internal decisions, and "the sentence is not carried out in public and is not subject to publication".
Background:
- On 9 June, the terrorists in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk Oblast "sentenced" to death three foreign fighters who defended Ukraine. These are Britons Aiden Aislin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Saadoune Brahim.
- The Ukrainian General Staff reported that all foreign fighters who defend Ukraine are combatants (are part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are playing a direct part in combat operations – ed.) and have the appropriate rights. This means that they are protected by the Geneva Convention.
- Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said that in Ukraine, the decision of the occupiers to impose the death penalty on three foreigners who defended Ukraine as part of the Armed Forces is considered null and void.
- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has condemned the death sentence, issued to three foreigners in the so-called "DPR".
- In mid-June, a spokesman for the US State Department said that the United States has information about three American volunteers who disappeared during the hostilities in Ukraine. He added that the department is in contact with the relatives of two Americans, whose disappearance in Ukraine became known earlier – 39-year-old Alexander Dryuke and 27-year-old Andy Hun, who were captured in the Kharkiv region.
- Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Geneva Convention does not apply to two US citizens who fought on the side of Ukraine and were captured. He also added that in this case execution cannot be ruled out, but it will be the decision of the court, not of the Kremlin.
