British fighters aid worker captured in Ukraine could face death penalty

The Britons captured in Ukraine by Russian forces could face the death penalty for their supposed crimes, according to Russian television.

Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were captured last month in Mariupol.

The Britons captured in Ukraine by Russian forces could face the death penalty for their supposed crimes, according to Russian television.

The state-run Rossiya 1 showed footage of four Britons, including a captured aid worker and three men who were taken prisoner fighting for the Ukraine foreign legion.

Aiden Aslin, 28, a former aid worker, and Shaun Pinner, 48, who was in the British army, were captured in mid-April while fighting in Mariupol.

In the news broadcast on Saturday, Andrei Spivak, a prosecutor for the “Donetsk People’s Republic” in east Ukraine, which is controlled by Russia, said the captured foreigners could be executed.

“As promised by Vladimir Putin a few days ago, the defence ministry today showed more foreign mercenaries captured during the special operation,” the newsreader said.

Spivak said: “They are charged with a number of crimes against civilians of the Donetsk People’s Republic. The maximum punishment for these crimes is the death penalty.”

Aslin says: “I understand fully what I am accused of and I agree with it fully up to the part about murdering civilians. I don’t agree with [that]. I agree with the fact that I fought on the territory of the [DPR], and fought against soldiers in peaceful settlements.”

In another part of the broadcast, Andrew Hill, a British captive, is shown answering questions in English with a bandaged head and right arm.

He says he “met many foreign mercenaries from around the world who are willing to do any dirty jobs needed, for money. They are really bad people and are sadists. Most are supporters of the nationalists and neo-Nazi ideology.”

Paul Urey, the aid worker, is also shown. He talks of being in Iraq and in Libya “to help the revolution”, and says the British government is “corrupt with the [British] newspapers”.

Referring to photos allegedly found on Urey’s phone that proved he was a mercenary, viewers are told: “These photos were found on the phone of another person supplied by the United Kingdom, Paul Urey. The pictures, taken at the start of the 2000s in Iraq, show the Briton with a gun in his hands. But he insists he’s only carried out humanitarian work in Ukraine.”

Video shows Urey pulling up his T-shirt to reveal tattoos of a Kalashnikov rifle.

The Times