The five – Sweden’s Mathias Gustafsson, Croatia’s Vjekoslav Prebeg and Britain’s John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy – all pleaded not guilty to charges that they were mercenaries and “undergoing training to seize power by force”. , according to Russian media. They could face the death penalty under the laws of the self-proclaimed, unrecognized Donetsk People’s Republic. The next trial in their case is scheduled for October, Russian media reported. Harding, Prebeg and Gustafsson were arrested in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and face possible execution for attempting to “seize power by force” and “participating in armed conflicts as mercenaries,” RIA Novosti news agency reported. Hill faces charges of being a mercenary, while Healy is on trial for involvement in recruiting mercenaries for Ukraine, the news agency reported. On June 9, the self-proclaimed republic’s highest court sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine’s industrial east as mercenaries. All three appealed their verdicts. There has been a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia since 1997, but it does not apply to Ukraine’s two separatist regions. Ukrainian social media has been abuzz with speculation that the Kremlin may seek to use the foreign fighters to extract concessions from Ukraine or exchange them for Russian prisoners.
