Aiden Aslin: Captured Brit in Ukraine appeals against death sentence

Nottinghamshire local had been fighting for Ukraine’s army

Aiden Aslin was sentenced last month for ‘mercenary activities’ (AP)

British citizen Aiden Aslin has submitted an appeal against his verdict, after being sentenced to death by a court in the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Mr Aslin, 28, was sentenced last month together with fellow Briton Shaun Pinner, 48, for “mercenary activities”.

They had been captured while fighting as foreigners for Ukraine’s army against Russian and Russian-backed forces in Ukraine.

A third man, Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim, was convicted alongside them.

Aiden Aslin (left) and Shaun Pinner (right) appear in court in Donetsk with Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim (EPA)

TASS news agency reported on Friday that the breakaway region’s supreme court had received appeals from lawyers for Mr Saadoun and Mr Pinner but that Mr Aslin, at that point, was yet to submit an appeal.

The lawyer representing Mr Aslin, Pavel Kosovan, said on Monday that an appeal had been lodged.

“A cassation appeal against the verdict was filed today,” he said.

In June this year, Russia was ordered by an international court to prevent the death penalty being carried out.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Thursday it had issued interim measures to instruct Moscow to ensure a stay of execution for Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner, who are currently being detained in Donetsk.

The ECHR requested that the Russian government provide information, within two weeks, to show what actions and measures have been taken by their authorities regarding the two Britons.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said their sentences would set a “clear example to other soldiers of fortune fighting for Ukraine.”

Mr Aslin, originally from Nottinghamshire, and Mr Pinner, from Watford, are both residents of Ukraine and had been serving in the country’s armed forces for several years prior to the Russian invasion, according to their families and lawyers.

Friends said 21-year-old Mr Brahim, who is originally from Casablanca, was an aerospace technology student at a university in Kyiv who joined the Ukranian military last summer, telling them he wanted to “die as a hero”.