Brit fighters Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin told they could face Russian death penalty

dailystar.co.uk:

Russia could face the death penalty.Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, are both being tried in a court in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic.Prosecutor Andrei Spivak said both "are charged with a number of crimes against civilians of the Donetsk People’s Republic" and the "maximum punishment for these crimes is the death penalty".While Aslin was heard saying he understood the accusations against him, he also said that he did not agree that he had murdered civilians while fighting for the Ukrainians in Mariupol.It is highly unlikely that the charges - including the death penalty - could have been brought without Russian leadership approval.

The prosecutor said: "In the period from approximately December 2018 to April 2022 Shaun Pinner, Aiden John Mark Aslin, and [another foreign fighter] acting deliberately by a group of persons by prior agreement as part of the armed forces of Ukraine, being on the territory of Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] in a time of war, being armed with firearms, took part in the preparation and military actions against the Armed Forces of the Donetsk People's Republic for the purpose of forcibly seizing and forcibly retaining power on the territory of DPR.” They are also accused of violating its constitution, by committing “terrorist acts, diversions, explosions, shelling from artillery, mortar, small arms of settlements, peaceful citizens, military of the Armed Forces of DPR, committing murders of the citizens of DPR, threatening of the civilians, who carried out their will during the referendum on May 11, 2014, which resulted in the forming of the state Donetsk People Republic”.