LONDON, June 23. /TASS/. London should discuss the fate of British national Aiden Aslin, sentenced to death in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), with Moscow, Aslin’s grandmother Pamela Hall told the BBC.
"I can't help but think that contact should be made between the UK and Russia," she said. "Aiden was extremely upset when he called his mother this morning. The bottom line is Aiden has said the DPR has told him nobody from the UK has made contact, and that he will be executed," Pamela Hall noted. "I know that [British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson has been over to Kiev and spoken again to [Ukrainian] President Zelensky and I am hoping they spoke about these guys," she added.
A DPR court earlier found British nationals Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun guilty of participating in military activities as mercenaries on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the DPR Prosecutor General's Office, the testimony of Shaun Pinner, Aiden Aslin and Brahim Saadoun confirmed their involvement in crimes as defined by Article 34.2 of the DPR Criminal Code (crimes committed by a group of people), Article 323 of the DPR Criminal Code (forcible seizure of power or forcible retention of power) and Article 430 of the DPR Criminal Code (mercenary activities).
The United Kingdom insists that the two British citizens served in the Ukrainian army and therefore should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in an interview with the BBC that it would be best if the Kiev regime’s representatives negotiated the release of Pinner and Aslin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, told the BBC that he was unaware of any British requests sent to Russia and believed that London should contact the DPR on the issue.