STRASBOURG – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) yesterday told Russia to prevent the execution of a Moroccan man sentenced to death in a pro-Moscow separatist region of Ukraine for fighting on behalf of Ukrainian forces.
Brahim Saadoun, a Moroccan citizen born in 2000, was sentenced to death along with two British men by the unrecognised Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), following his surrender to Russian forces in the conflict sparked by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
Russia “should ensure that the death penalty imposed on the applicant is not carried out,” the court said in its emergency ruling following a petition filed this month by a representative of Saadoun.
The ruling issued by Europe’s rights court is an urgent interim measure, provided on an exceptional basis, when the applicants would otherwise “face a real risk of irreversible harm”, it emphasised.
Britain has expressed fury over the death sentences handed to the two Britons in the case, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. They surrendered in April in Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine that was captured by Russian troops after a weeks-long siege.
Ironically, the urgent interim measure is the same format used by the ECHR on Tuesday when it triggered the cancellation of the first deportation flight of asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, angering London.
That move has sparked debate within the British government about whether Britain should continue to implement ECHR rulings.
The ECHR is part of the Council of Europe, which ejected Russia from its membership in mid-March following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia simultaneously also took steps to leave the body.
The court still insists it can issue verdicts concerning Russia although the Russian Parliament has adopted legislation insisting it should no longer adhere to ECHR rulings. – AFP, June 17, 2022
