Image Credit: twitter screenshot 
Two British men and a Moroccan man fighting as mercenaries with the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been sentenced to death following military trials in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Since mainstream media and Western diplomats refuse to acknowledge the Donbas region as independent from Ukraine after over eight years of Civil War, they are painting the death sentences as “Soviet-era show trials.”
The Independent reports, “Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were being tried in a court in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in what observers denounced as a disgusting Soviet-era show trial.”
The DPR is one of the areas of Ukraine that voted for independence in a 2014 referendum that sparked the Civil War and has resulted in Ukraine shelling the citizens of the region for the past eight years.
Ukrainian hostility against the people of the DPR is the main factor behind Russia’s current military operation in the country.
In an interview filmed in April, Aslin admitted the DPR and LPR regions are independent and that the infamous Ukrainian Azov Batallion fighters are “fanatics” and “criminals.”
Regarding the Azov group, the merc claimed he personally witnessed “far-right” members with “swastika” patches on their uniforms.
The Brit also said he isn’t a “hero” because he tried to desert the military and admitted he is “a mercenary.”
Ironically, Aslin told the camera when he was captured he thought he “was going to be lined up and shot.”
Now, after being tried in the DPR court, it appears as if his fear will soon come true.
Aslin accepted the penalty in the DPR for fighting as a mercenary is the death penalty and pleaded with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek a prisoner exchange.
In an interview with Shaun Pinner, the captured British fighter acknowledged he fought with Ukraine on a “voluntary” basis and said, “I picked a side and we lost. I can accept this.”
With no prisoner swap taking place, Aslin, Pinner and a Moroccan man named Brahim Saadoun were sentenced to death by firing squad on Thursday.
In the videos below, the war prisoners are seen being read their charges and pleading guilty in court.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss condemned the court’s decision on Twitter Thursday, writing, “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”
However, according to the Geneva Convention, mercenaries are not entitled to the status of combatant or prisoner of war.
Not only does the Geneva Convention not apply to the foreign fighters, but the fact that they all pleaded “guilty” indicates the trial wasn’t the “sham” it’s being labeled by Western media and politicians.
The judge presiding over the cases told the press following the ruling, “The evidence presented by the prosecution in this case allowed the court to pass a guilty verdict, not to mention the fact that all the defendants, without exception, pleaded guilty to all charges.”
“When passing the verdict, the court was guided not only by the prescribed norms and rules, but also by the most important, unshakable principle of justice. It was that which made it possible to take this complex and difficult decision to apply an exceptional measure of punishment in the form of the death penalty,” he added.
While the establishment paints the court’s decision as a “show trial,” Ukraine officials are engaged in legal prosecutions that can only be described as actual show trials.
For example, the first Russian soldier charged with a war crime for raping a civilian woman was admittedly not the individual who actually committed the alleged offense.
The soldier who allegedly did the raping was never apprehended by Ukraine, so they selected a random captured Russian fighter to sit in jail in his place.
Even Yahoo News admitted, “Any conviction would likely be symbolic as Ukraine never captured Romanov.”
A “symbolic” conviction of a man who never committed the crime he’s being charged with is clearly an example of a “show trial.”
Now, Ukraine’s top human rights official admits after being fired from her position that she deliberately spread misinformation about Russians committing mass rape in order to convince western countries to send more weapons to Ukraine.
The global establishment is bending over backward to try and paint Ukraine in a positive light, but it appears as if their propaganda efforts are failing.