- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
TWO Britons, who have been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine and charged with being mercenaries, have the investigation procedure against them completed and their case was ready to be submitted to the court, the Donetsk news agency said on Friday (29) citing a source.
While Dylan Healey, a 22-year-old chef who was volunteering as an aid worker, was captured at a checkpoint located south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, Andrew Hill, 35, had reportedly surrendered, according to a video released by Russia which showed him in a military uniform.
The capture of Healey and Hill came after two other British men — Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin — were sentenced to death in June.
The UK’s foreign office accused the Russian side saying it condemns the exploitation of prisoners of war and civilians for political reasons following the capture of Healy and Hill.
Pro-Russian news reports said all investigations against the duo had been completed and only the technical details remain for their case to be submitted to the judiciary.
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency had earlier alleged that both Healey and Hill refused to co-operate with the investigators.
The BBC said like Healy and Hill, Pinner and Aslin also faced the same charges in the hearing at a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine which is not recognised internationally.
While the European Court of Human Rights intervened to demand that the sentence against Pinner and Aslin be not carried out, Moscow rejected it saying the fate of the men lied with the pro-Russian, breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic.
